Rubbing a hand over his face with a blown out breath, Kane quietly cursed. What the hell had happened to him?
Morgan must have been wondering the same thing. “Did you drink from someone last night who was on drugs?”
It took massive quantities of alcohol or drugs to give a vampire even a small buzz, but feeding from someone high on something could do the trick. But he hadn’t been out looking for a feed and he remembered partaking of bagged blood before he’d left to go hunting so that he wouldn’t be tempted. Standard operating procedure for a Hunter, and despite no longer being one, old habits died hard. “Not that I recall, but there’s definitely a gap in my memory.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
As soon as Kane filled her in, Morgan began eyeing Travis’s old place that Kane had been using until he set up a permanent home somewhere in the city. She sniffed near where he’d been sitting, utilizing her keen hunter senses to look for any clues. Running a finger across the back of the couch, she frowned, rubbing whatever she’d found between her fingers. “Is this sand? Ash?”
“I don’t know, but I felt some on my face.”
Travis also began looking about, reminding Kane that the dragon shifter had been a cop before he’d recently resigned to join Morgan and their merry band of Hunters. A deep inhale of a throw pillow. “I’m picking up the scent of lavender over here,” the guy said, turning a raised brow in Kane’s direction. “Unless you’ve switched up your body wash, I’m thinking you may have had a woman here.”
Ah, shit. Not what he wanted to hear. It was bad enough he couldn’t remember what had happened past that last club he’d entered, but now, some woman was probably going to be calling him, or worse, showing up at his door and he wasn’t going to know who the hell she was or what they’d done together. Perfect. Just what he didn’t need.
Morgan moved to the bedroom door and inhaled deeply. “I don’t smell sex.”
Blowing out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, Kane shook his head with a murmured, “Thank fuck.”
His memory might still be a black hole, but at least he hadn’t had sex with some random human he could have hurt in some drug haze or whatever had happened to him. He was Born. Far stronger than a human and he was always conscious of that fact when he was with a woman, always careful. But considering his lack of memory, how messed up he must have been to get in this condition, he could have hurt a woman, killed her even… He didn’t want to think about that.
“I don’t like this,” Morgan was saying, turning a slow circle, her eyes taking in everything. “I think we need to head to that club, see if the bartenders can tell us something – when you left, who you left with, anything.”
In full agreement, Kane went to get dressed.
Chapter Four
The bouncer at the door recognized Kane immediately though his eyes were practically devouring Morgan. “Back again. And you brought a friend to brighten up the place.”
The scent of sulfur hit Kane’s nose hard, testifying that Travis had noticed the man’s overly appreciative gaze and both man and dragon were prepared to barbeque the bouncer’s ass if he didn’t find something else to look at, and quickly.
Morgan’s hand on her mate’s chest did wonders to soothe the beast, however, as she questioned the bouncer. “Do you remember about what time he left last night?” she asked, her head tilting to indicate Kane.
“Just after my first break, so around midnight. Left with a sweet piece of ass too.”
The guy raised his hand for Kane to clasp in some show of brotherly solidarity, and while the bouncer’s attitude rubbed Kane the wrong way, he needed answers. Grasping the hand, Kane bumped shoulders with the guy.
“Did you recognize her?” Morgan pressed. “Does she frequent this place?”
The bouncer shook his head, waving in a group of heavily perfumed, giggling women in short skirts who looked barely legal. “I wish. Last night was the first I’d seen her.”
Disappointed that he didn’t immediately have a name he could track down, Kane held back his grimace. “Did she come with anyone?”
“Nope. Arrived alone but she sure as hell didn’t leave that way.” A sly chuckle was accompanied by a drawled, “My man.”
Once again, that hand was raised for Kane to clasp and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Sleazy bastard. Kane might not exactly be the poster boy for good behavior when it came to women, he took what was offered more times than not, but he liked to think the women enjoyed themselves, and he always made sure they understood that anything with him was short-term fun. He also didn’t go around bragging about his exploits to others. What happened between him and whatever woman he was with, stayed between them. In this case, though, he’d like to be able to remember what had happened and with whom.
“Come on,” Morgan prompted. “Let’s go talk to the bartender.”
Another group was waved in, temporarily halting their progress, but as soon as they crossed the threshold, Kane had his first hint of memory. The pulsing beat of the dance mix playing loudly, the gyrating bodies moving to that beat on the dance floor. Yes, right about here, someone had stumbled into him, a petite blonde with that hazy look in her eyes and a lopsided smile that suggested too much alcohol.
He’d gone up to the bar after that, he remembered, not taking advantage of the invitation clearly written in the inebriated woman’s eyes. He’d been focused on finding his target. So how had another woman, one he couldn’t even remember, somehow managed to break through the hunting instinct to leave with him? Or had it been that same blonde? Had he considered himself done for the night and gone looking for her? No. He avoided drunk women as a rule, preferring his off the clock shenanigans with females in full possession of their faculties, free to choose without the haze of alcohol clouding their judgment. But who then? Shit. This not remembering business sucked ass.
Approaching the bar, he recognized the duo behind it from the night before, the man he’d spoken with, coming over. “That guy you were looking for last night hasn’t been in.”
Well, that confirmed that he had at least managed to stay on task last night long enough to show Kevin Thompson’s picture and ask about him.
Nodding, he ordered a beer as Morgan and Travis did the same. Once the bartender returned with their drinks, he asked, “Do you remember the woman I was with last night?”
When the guy nodded, Kane asked, “Did you catch a name?”
The request had the guy’s eyebrows shooting up to his hairline. “You don’t remember?”
Yeah, Kane supposed if the woman was as hot as the bouncer had made it seem, Kane’s not remembering her name would come as a surprise.
The bartender shook his head. “She give you a fake number or something?” he asked, drawing his own conclusions. “Look, if the woman doesn’t want to be found you need to leave her alone.”
Honestly, Kane had no idea if the woman wanted him to leave her alone or not. They hadn’t had sex according to Morgan’s nose, did that mean he’d passed out before they could and she’d left in a huff? Possible. But he could tell by the mulish look on the man’s face that the bartender wasn’t going to help him find the woman. And while he appreciated the protective vibe, it wasn’t helpful at the moment.
Luckily, Travis spoke up to save the situation. “I’m a cop. We believe the woman might be in danger. Anything you can tell us about her, anything at all could be a help.”
The bartender shook his head and raised a finger to indicate he needed a moment before he moved off to grab drinks for a group that approached the bar. When he returned, he informed them, “I serve drinks to a lot of people, all night almost every night. I rarely catch names and I didn’t catch hers.”
“Can you describe her?” Morgan asked.
Kane would have asked the bouncer for a description, but the guy was most likely incapable of offering anything more useful than the dimensions of the woman’s assets. That, and any description probably wo
uld have come with a heaping helping of innuendo, eyebrow waggling, and elbow nudges. The guy behind the bar was definitely less of a pig in that sense as he shrugged, and told them, “Probably around twenty-two or twenty-three, African American, pretty.” Motioning to Morgan he said, “A little taller than you, I think.” Raising his hand behind his head he added, “Hair was all in braids.”
Kane frowned. None of that sounded familiar. Not even a tickle of recollection. What the hell?
“Do you have cameras in this place?” Travis prompted only for the bartender to raise his hands, palms out in front of him.
“Look, I’ve told you what I know. If you want to talk about cameras and shit, you need to talk to the owner, get a warrant, whatever.” Motioning to the other patrons waiting, the guy finished with, “I need to work,” before leaving them to their beers.
Dead end. Taking a swig from his beer, Kane set the cup down and motioned that he was leaving, and while he was loathed to do so, he stopped once more at the door to hand his card to the bouncer. “If that woman I left with returns, give me a call.”
“You’ve got it, my brother,” was said with a grin as that hand was once more raised for a clasp. Kane just barely resisted the urge to break every bone in that hand. There was a woman out there with knowledge of him that could fill in the gaps in his memory, and he had no idea how to find her. He couldn’t remember her name, she hadn’t left a phone number, and he only had a generic at best description of what she looked like. Shit.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and Kane whipped it out. The thought occurring to him that she may not have left him her phone number, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t given her his digits. She could be calling him even now. That hope took a nosedive when he saw it was Edward on the other end of the call.
The man was an excellent clerk, had been Olivier Rodolfo’s clerk until he’d been punished for refusing to alter records that were meant to be sent to the Court of Elders – the ruling body of Born vampires. Kane had recently learned Rodolfo had been rewarding some of his men by forcefully Turning women that those men wanted to add to their, well, harem was probably the best word. And as all Turnings were tracked by the Elders, those Turned vampires contractually obligated to serve the Born, Rodolfo’s uncontracted vampire gifts to his men were illegal and would have brought the Court down on his head had they gotten wind of the practice. Thus why Rodolfo had wanted to fudge the numbers.
Had the Court ever decided to audit Rodolfo’s records, Edward, as Rodolfo’s clerk would have also been held to account, the reason why the man had balked. Unfortunately, he was punished brutally for his hesitation. He’d been severely beaten, bled out so he couldn’t heal, and then placed in the ground in Rodolfo’s greenhouse where the Born punished his minions, to slowly and painfully shrivel from starvation while baking in that oven. Kane having rescued the man from that horror had secured Edward’s unflinching loyalty, and the man had since proved himself incredibly helpful to Kane during this transition period from Hunter to territory-holder.
“Edward, sorry I didn’t call you back. Something came up.” And wasn’t that an understatement.
“Oh, sir, no. No need to apologize. I worried when you didn’t arrive to meet with the realtor as planned, but as my text indicated, I’ve since rescheduled the appointment. Does tomorrow morning at nine work for you? Of course, if you prefer I be there, I’d be more than happy to call her back and schedule something in the evening.”
“Nine is perfect. Thank you, Edward.”
“My pleasure, sir,” and Kane could hear in the man’s voice that he was practically beaming at the praise. Yeah. Kane’s predecessor hadn’t been much for the good job, well done, pat on the back kind of thing. Not many of the territory-holding Born were, and it made Kane wonder, had he not been a Hunter first, had he simply gained a territory as his birthright, would he have ruled it in a similar fashion to so many others?
Not that it mattered now. He was what he had become thanks to his time with the Hunter Society and Morgan specifically. She’d not only trained him, but she’d also saved him, and he was honestly glad that she and Jamie would both be sticking around with this new Hunter Academy they were building to train new Hunters. Their opinions mattered, would always matter to him, and speaking of which…
“Hey, I have an appointment to look at a place tomorrow morning at nine. Want to come?”
Morgan grinned. “I wouldn’t miss it.” Nudging his shoulder, she added, “And don’t worry about that woman. If that place has cameras, Jamie’ll hack into them and find out who she is.”
And if anyone could do it. Jamie could. They couldn’t technically be his team anymore thanks to the rules that governed the Hunters Society, but damn, it felt good to know they’d always have his back.
Chapter Five
Sophia nervously fiddled with the brim of the baseball cap she’d tucked her hair under, rechecked that the buttons of her sleeveless white blouse were properly closed, and twisted a hanging thread from her worn jeans around a finger. She’d done it. She’d left pack lands and entered the city, accepting Jamie’s invitation to go with them to check out some property.
It was a first step, one that should be simple. As Jamie had pointed out, she didn’t have to go into the house where she might feel caged, could stay outside, and since it was a residential area, she wouldn’t have to deal with any crowds that might startle her. Still, her nerves were shredded at all the horrific possibilities that might occur, such as her going all Godzilla and setting a rather ritzy neighborhood on fire.
As for meeting Kane Fletcher, she was prepared. She’d been around Morgan enough to kind of get used to that irritating feeling under the skin, was expecting to experience the same with Fletcher, but she had convinced herself she could control her reaction. Forewarned was forearmed, right? Not to mention that Travis was there to help her through if she needed talking down.
With a hard swallow, she sent up a little prayer to whoever might be listening that she didn’t wig out and shift, destroying everything in her path.
“You’re going to be fine,” Jamie assured her with a smile and a pat on the arm. “You’ve got this.” That smile, faded a bit as the vampire’s eyes moved over her. “Aren’t you cold? I mean, it’s New Orleans but it’s still winter.”
Sophia shook her head and reminded the woman, “Dragon. We have a built-in furnace.”
That elicited a grin. “Nice.”
Sophia caught a slight shimmer to the vampire’s skin under the sunlight and had Sophia looking at Jamie more closely. It was odd seeing a Turned vampire out in the daytime. Sophia had asked about how it was possible, but Jamie had only grinned and said ‘magic’, unwilling to disclose any details. That was fine. Sophia was simply glad to have the woman, who was rapidly becoming one of her best friends, at her side on this first venture out into the wider world. But that shimmer suggested that Jamie hadn’t been joking, that there was indeed something magical going on. Her curiosity was once again piqued, but she didn’t ask, wouldn’t press. If Jamie wanted to tell her the secret, she would.
The house was magnificent. Brick fronted, with tall, arched windows framed by black shutters, but it was the odd shape of the dwelling that struck her. Sophia didn’t know much about architecture, but this place wasn’t built like a typical southern mansion or shotgun row house. While it had plenty of balconies with wrought iron railings, it was built with odd angles and almost whimsical sections that curved. The sight made her want to go inside and explore how those curves translated within the interior.
“Oh, it’s lovely,” Morgan breathed, turning back to smile at Sophia, who was lagging behind with Jamie and Archer. “Isn’t it?”
“Definitely not what I was expecting Kane to choose,” Jamie returned.
“More than likely,” Archer suggested, “Kane just gave a list of what he wanted to the realtor and this is one of the options.”
The conversation continued to buzz around her, more oohing and ahhin
g over the house, but Sophia heard none of it. The man who just stepped out the front door with a smartly dressed woman in a tailored, navy skirt suit at his side, had to be Kane Fletcher. He was too beautiful to be anything but one of the Born, and everything inside of her, including her dragon, had gone still at the first sight of him.
Her step slowed as she drank him in. Tall, dressed all in black from his leather jacket and jeans to the biker boots on his feet. He had a strong, muscular frame that was perfectly proportioned to his height. His skin was a warm copper, his beard neatly trimmed and even from this distance, she could see his eyes were a deep brown and thickly lashed.
His hair was pulled back from his forehead, the back just touching the collar of his leather jacket, and was a rich, chocolatey brown with ribbons of caramel glinting under the morning sun.
Sophia frowned at the odd comparison which sounded remarkably like a Milky Way commercial and almost chuckled. Maybe she was hungry, and that was why her system had gone haywire. While she didn’t have a candy bar with her, she had brought food for just such an emergency. Digging into her leather hobo, she pulled out a Slim Jim, split open the plastic wrapper, and took a bite… Which brought Kane Fletcher’s eyes straight to her.
“You brought snacks?” he asked, a delighted look on his face. “A woman after my own heart.”
He strode toward her, graceful, beautiful, deadly. Kane Fletcher moved like a predator. Had Sophia not already known he was a vampire, she would have pegged him as a shifter. Most likely one of the big cat species, maybe a tiger – no, a jaguar – a cat so beautiful to look at that you longed to stroke it despite the risk of losing a hand should you indulge the urge.
A Hunter Found: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (Hired Hunters Series Book 3) Page 3
