The back of Skye's neck tingled in awareness but the hair didn't stand up in alarm as it had in the woods. What were the odds of two teenage girls turning up missing in Vegas, both with some link to the occult? For Haley's sake, Skye hoped Jen didn't end up in the same condition as Brittany Armstrong.
Skye rose from the couch and retrieved the photo of Brittany from the jeans she'd left in the bathroom. When she handed the photo to Haley, she asked, "Does this girl look familiar?"
Haley worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she concentrated on the picture. "Sort of." She gave an apologetic shrug and returned the photo. "So many of the kids that come to Fangs look like that. I'm sorry. I can't be sure. Why?"
Now it was Skye's turn to shrug. "Another missing kid."
"I'm sorry I can't help."
"Do you know where Jen and Amy were living?"
"No. They always came to the club."
"What about other clubs? Any favorites?"
"I don't know."
"Do you have a picture of your sister?"
"Yes." Once again Haley's hand reached up and covered the pendant. "But I don't have it with me. I...I only just decided to try and find you. I didn't want to go back and get it."
"I'll need a photograph of Jen before I can do much to help you."
"I'll get you one." Haley twisted the necklace. "I'd better go. You can find me at the club. At Fangs. Kyle and I are there every night. He doesn't know about this. About me coming here. Please don't say anything in front of him."
"Haley, do you think he had something to do with Jen's disappearance?"
The woman visibly startled. "Oh no. No." Her voice was firm, confident. "It's not that. He's just very protective. That's all. He doesn't want me to get hurt."
Skye stared at the woman. Haley met the stare-a little timidly, but she met it and held it, and for a few seconds fell into the blue pools of Skye's hypnotic eyes. "You're sure he didn't have anything to do with your sister's disappearance?" Skye's voice was whisper-soft, like a warm breeze moving through the other woman's mind.
"Yes, I'm positive," Haley answered. And Skye knew she was telling the truth-or at least what she believed to be the truth.
A blink and Haley was free. She looked at Skye and searched her memory for what they'd been talking about. "I'll get you a photo."
"Okay. I'll swing by the club tonight."
Haley nodded and walked over to the door. "Thanks. I forgot to thank you earlier."
Skye thought about the men in the blue Yukon and took the moment to trap Haley once again. "Have you seen the men who attacked you before?"
Haley's brows pulled together in guileless concentration. Her answer was the same under hypnosis as it had been at the bus stop. She didn't know who her attackers were.
Skye released her and asked, "Do you need a lift somewhere?"
"No. No thanks."
"I'll walk you back to the bus stop then."
Haley's voice was barely a whisper. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble."
The phone rang and woke Skye. She started to get out of bed to answer it then heard Detective Caldwell's chilly, efficient voice as the machine picked up.
She tuned the voice out and snuggled under the covers, letting her mind drift, shuffling and replaying the events of the last twenty-four hours.
Without a picture there wasn't much she could do to help Haley find her sister. Names were meaningless in the club scene. Easy to change. Easy to forget.
Skye had her doubts about being able to locate Jen Warren in the first place. Especially if the boyfriend had been looking for the last two months. That was still a big "if" in her mind. Any number of possibilities flitted through her thoughts. The boyfriend might know where the sister went, or what happened to her. If he was spooked by the interest in the occult, and money was no problem, he may have just paid the sister to disappear from Haley's life.
The simplest thing to do would be to take the answer out of his mind. Skye wondered how easily that could be accomplished. Despite the police rumors, not every one was susceptible to hypnosis, and Skye rarely took a person so deep that they blurted out everything they knew, much less did anything she asked.
About the only lead Skye could follow up on was to find out where the other girl, Amy Weldon, was and go see her. Too bad Haley didn't know where Amy was staying or even if she was still in Vegas.
Caldwell's voice stopped. The answering machine clicked a few times to indicate it was finished recording and was now prepared for the next call. Skye got out of bed, dug around in the dresser and selected black jeans and a pale blue tank top then wandered over to the phone.
It was a long shot, but worth a try. She looked through the government pages and found a listing for the U.S. Senate. A call later and she knew there were two Senator Weldons. One from Florida, one from New York.
Haley and Jen were from Florida. Skye called that senator first and left a message explaining that she was trying to locate Amy in connection with a missing person's case. Then she redialed and left a message for the other senator.
That done, she retrieved her switchblade and slipped it into her pocket along with the picture of Brittany Armstrong, then laced on black books and snagged her Harley jacket. She would just as soon eat at Fangs than linger at home and risk Detective Caldwell getting impatient and doing a drive-by.
It was three flights of steps down to the parking garage. The Harley waiting for her was the only thing Skye had ever splurged on. Its black paint and silver chrome shone in the dimness. Its engine surged to life at a touch, promising freedom and power, reminding Skye of how it felt to run unchallenged in remote woods and across open desert.
Fangs was on the outskirts of town in an almost isolated area. The parking lot was full and a long line of people waited to get into the club.
Skye wandered over to join the crowd. Most of them seemed young, female, and covered with body piercings and perfume. The smell of pot and booze and Ecstasy permeated the air around them.
She slipped her Harley jacket off. The evening air was warm and relaxing. Skye let it fill her, soak into her, refresh her.
As the last of the sun disappeared, the door to the nightclub opened. A man stepped out. Like the crowd waiting to get in, he wore black. A ripple of excitement moved down the line as the bouncer began checking IDs and letting people inside.
Skye studied the crowd around her and was amused by how many sported hickeys. Not just one, but multiple bite marks, as though they'd been the main course at a ten-person meal.
A thin kid with a bad case of acne sidled up to her. Made bold by alcohol and a sense of being in his element, he flashed a fanged smile and asked, "You alone?"
Skye blinked in surprise. The boy's smiled widened to show her his filed, pointed teeth. "Meeting somebody," she told him.
He looked back to the end of the line where a couple of girls his age were standing and watching him. "Okay if I hang here?"
She studied him. He was just barely twenty-one, physically, younger emotionally and intellectually-a world apart from her in experience. "Sure. It's a free country."
"I'm Mike," he said, flashing his fangs.
"I'm Skye."
"I haven't seen you here before."
"First time." She smiled at him. He fell into her eyes without urging. Skye blinked and turned her head slightly, releasing him, surprised at how susceptible he was to hypnosis. She hadn't accidentally trapped someone since she was a child learning how to deal with her strange ability. "You look like you're a regular here," she said.
"I come here pretty much every night."
"Are most of these people regulars?"
"Yeah. A lot of them are."
A groan went up among the people standing in line as forward movement stopped. The bouncer disappeared into the club for a second then stepped back out, closing the door behind him.
Mike sighed. "I thought for sure they wouldn't cut it off until you got in. The vamps like women with long hair."
Skye examined his face. She didn't need to hypnotize him to know that he was serious. "Vamps?"
He was startled by her question, momentarily unsure of himself. "Uh, sure. Isn't that why you're here, to uh, to be with a vamp?" He flashed his fangs again, but with less confidence.
Skye wanted to laugh. She wondered if maybe she'd been staring at herself in the mirror and had somehow fallen into a weird subconscious reality. "I'm just getting into this whole Goth scene," she said, remembering Haley's term.
Mike straightened. "Oh, so, like, you don't have any experience with vampires yet."
She studied him and knew from years of experience that he wasn't jiving her, he was serious about this. "No."
He looked up as the girls from the end of the line joined them. "Guess we're not going to get in," one of them said. Her voice was heavy with disappointment.
The other girl slipped her arm through Mike's. Her eyes flashed with jealousy. The boy looked uncomfortable. He muttered, "That's my sister Candy and this is Dawn."
Dawn glared. "I'm his girlfriend."
Candy offered a shy smile. "We were hoping they'd let us in with you. The vamps always go for people that look like you."
It amused Skye that they'd thought to use her as their ticket into Fangs. She didn't bother to contain her laugh. It was soft, unconsciously seductive, as warm as the night breeze.
Candy's eyes widened and she clutched her brother's arm, jumped in place a few times. "He's coming this way. Oh my god, he's coming this way."
The bouncer was moving along the line of people. As he passed, some of the women flirted outrageously with him. He stopped briefly, sent several up to wait for him at the entrance then continued on.
Skye followed him with her eyes. Felt the excitement of the three people next to her as the dark-haired man stopped in front of them. His gaze met hers boldly before moving to encompass the other three then returning to Skye. "They're with you?"
"Yes."
The bouncer gave a small nod of acknowledgment. "You're in," he said before turning around and going back to the club door.
Candy and Dawn both squealed. Mike flashed his fangs at Skye.
"Let's go before he changes his mind!" Candy grabbed her brother and Dawn. The three of them hustled after the bouncer.
Skye followed her new companions, amusing herself with the thought that they might ditch her once they got inside. But they didn't.
The club was packed but they found a table against the wall furthest from the dance floor. "We're in," Mike breathed as he sank into a chair. "This is SO RAD."
"Don't you come here every night?" Skye asked.
He flushed. "Uh, sure, but we don't get in that often."
"So you just hang out all night in line?"
Candy giggled. "It's not so bad. The waiters come out and take drink orders. We've made friends with some of them. When they're working they can usually get us inside once it gets late."
"And you come here because you want to meet a vampire?" Skye couldn't keep the hint of disbelief out of her voice.
"Well sure." Dawn gave Skye a strange look. "I mean, this is where you come if you want to, like, meet a vampire. Isn't that why you're here?"
Mike broke into the conversation, "She's just getting into the Goth scene."
Dawn and Candy both nodded, like that explained everything. Dawn said, "So you're a vampire virgin."
Skye laughed. Despite the black clothes, pierced noses and lips, these kids were so much simpler than most of the runaways she hunted. She was enjoying them. "Maybe you guys could clue me in."
Candy almost bounded out of her seat in excitement. "Sure. Oh yeah. I mean, it's the least we can do. We've never gotten into the club this early before."
"I'll go get us some beers," Mike volunteered.
Skye reached into a pocket and handed him some bills. "Whatever's on tap is fine. First round's on me."
"Hey, thanks." He pocketed the money and hurried toward the bar. Skye was surprised that Dawn hadn't gone with him so she could guard her territory. But the girl had a bigger plan. She leaned over and said, "The whole thing about being with a vampire is the sex. It's incredible. I mean, mind-blowing. It's because they take your blood while they're doing it, not that you remember that part, but you just know it was one of the things that made the sex so great. I mean, don't get me wrong, Mike is great and all, but not like a vampire. Somebody who looks like you doesn't have to settle for a vampire wannabe."
"So you've done it with a vampire?" Skye asked.
"Before Mike and I hooked up," Dawn said then added dramatically, "now I have to live on the memories."
"What about you?" Skye asked Candy.
The older girl ducked her head. "I've just been bitten a couple of times." She fingered the hickeys on her neck. "Most of them were just wannabes, I could tell after it was over, but one of them was the real thing...I mean, wow, I thought I was going to faint when his mouth was on my neck, only his girlfriend got pissed and he stopped before he actually bit me."
"Was she a vamp, too?"
"She wishes," Candy muttered. "No. She works over at the MGM. She's a maid like me. We both work the day shift."
"Guess she can't be a vampire then." Skye looked around the club. The dance floor was overflowing. People were packed around every table and along the bar. She retrieved the picture of Brittany and put it on the table. "Do you remember seeing this girl at Fangs?"
The two girls exchanged glances. Skye hoped they'd answer willingly, not force her to hypnotize them. "Are you like a cop or something?" Candy asked.
"Or something." Skye shrugged. "It's no big deal if you can't help."
Dawn picked the picture up and studied it. "I think she was here last week."
Candy took the picture from her. "Yeah. She didn't get in though. At least, not that I know of."
"Was she alone?"
Candy shrugged. "I don't know."
"I didn't notice," Dawn said.
Mike returned with the drinks. His sister showed him the picture. "Skye wants to know if we've seen this girl."
He swallowed. "Uh, you're not a cop or anything, are you?"
"No." She let her senses flow out momentarily. There was just the barest trace of pot in his system. The girls had none in theirs.
"Uh-" he looked back down at the picture, "-yeah, I think she was here one night last week. She hung out in the line but she was behind us. None of the waiters we know were working that night, so we didn't get in the club."
"Did you notice if she was with anybody?"
"Is she in trouble or something?" Mike asked.
"No." For an instant she let him slide into the blue pools of her eyes. "Did you notice if she was with anyone?"
He concentrated, frowned. "I don't think so. She left before we did. Only she walked. Yeah, I remember that now. I mean, it's not like we're even close to a bus stop or anything."
Skye blinked and released him. "How late do you guys stay when you can't get in?"
"Three or four in the morning, usually," Candy answered. "I mean, most of the vamps are probably gone by then. They've only got until the sun comes up to do whatever they do."
"Makes sense." Skye put the picture back in her pocket then took a long sip of beer. "So how do you tell the real thing?"
"You get a rush just by looking at one of them," Mike answered. "I mean, if you hadn't shown up before the sun went down, I would've thought you were a vampire."
Dawn moved closer to her boyfriend, dismayed by his answer. Candy said, "Oh my god, there's one. He's got to be one. Look at him."
Edgy awareness and need rippled through Skye as soon as she glanced up. Pure sex. That's what she thought when she saw him.
He was tall, filled out with well-defined muscles, his stomach flat. There was nothing underneath the black vest but smooth skin. Matching black pants hugged his body like a sensual embrace as he skirted the dance floor. Long black hair was held away from his face by a leather strap. A deep red ruby glinted from a single earring stud. He had the face of a dark angel.
A mate, her body claimed, sending a pulse of heat to Skye's cunt, the primitive, internal voice inside of her getting harder to ignore.
"Wow," Candy breathed when the man disappeared out of sight around one end of the bar.
"Yeah, wow," Dawn echoed. This time it was Mike who moved closer in a jealous gesture.
"Definitely a vamp," Candy said.
"Yeah, definitely," Dawn agreed.
Their comments eased some of the tension in Skye's body. She hid a smile in her beer mug before taking another sip. Except for the flashes of fang and the uniform all-black clothing that the patrons wore, this club was like a lot of nightspots Skye had been in. "So how'd you find this place, anyway?" she asked idly.
"On the Internet," Mike answered.
Dawn giggled. "Believe it or not, Mike's a real computer geek. His boss is always asking him to fix stuff on the computer."
Skye smiled at the boy. These kids were a surprise. She had a laptop and knew how to do searches, but mainly she used it to research locations when she was out of town and hunting.
"Really?" she asked. "What'd you do, search for vampire hangouts?"
Mike grinned at her. "No, there are a lot of newsgroups on the web. We joined some of them. Then found out about a private chat room. Somebody in it mentioned this place and we decided to check it out."
Candy chimed in, "The Internet is, like, so cool. There are people from all over the country in the chat room. The person who told us about this club was from San Francisco. But they'd been in Vegas with a friend who knew about Fangs."
"So mainly you just chat about vampire hangouts?"
Dawn giggled. "You must not hang out in any chat rooms."
"You're right. So what do people talk about?"
"EVERYTHING," Candy said dramatically then grinned, "but mainly sex."
A slow song started to play. Dawn tugged at Mike's hand. "Let's dance." He gulped a swallow of beer to fortify himself and followed her to the dance floor.
Skye watched them dance. The girl next to her sighed. "They're so cute together."
"You don't have a boyfriend?" Skye gently probed.
"No."
Skye studied the girl. Like her brother, she was battling a case of acne, though hers wasn't as bad and she'd done a good job with her makeup. Her brown hair was short and spiky, and left her ears with their collection of studs and rings showing. Unlike Dawn and Mike, Candy didn't have jewelry in her nose or lip. But even with less jewelry and longer hair, she'd always be average-looking.
"This place doesn't seem like it'd be very good for meeting guys," Skye finally said. "It looks like there are about five women for every man."
Candy slowly spun her beer mug on the table. "I know Dawn said the whole thing about being with a vampire is sex and all, but if one of them gives you some of his blood then it'd make you, uh, you know, like, way more attractive to the opposite sex." The girl ducked her head, embarrassed to reveal so much about herself.
Skye tried to lighten the mood. "I thought you ended up a vampire if they made you drink their blood."
"Well, yeah, that can happen, too. But they've got to, like, totally drain you of blood then give it back to you. It'd be cool to have all that vampire power. That's what Mike wants. I mean, the cool thing about being a computer geek, you can do that anytime. You don't have to be up during the day. But I like going out in the sun and stuff. I don't really want to become a vampire, just maybe have one for a boyfriend, or at least make friends with one."
Skye stroked her finger down the length of the beer mug. She could feel the pieces of the puzzle beginning to slip into place. "Do you guys talk about dark magic and occult rituals in your chat room?"
Candy gave a dramatic shudder. "Sometimes. But only about how creepy that kind of stuff is and how people who don't really know about vampires sometimes think it's all the same."
Skye finished her beer and wondered if this was what Haley meant when she said Jen and Amy were really getting into the Goth scene. Had they come here night after night trying to meet vampires and perhaps become one? Had Brittany Armstrong been looking for the same thing?
It couldn't be a coincidence that Brittany Armstrong had been totally drained of blood. Had she thought she'd rise with vampiric power, only to end up very, very dead?
Mike and Dawn returned, flushed and sexually stimulated, both with new hickeys on their necks. Dawn giggled and told Candy, "Tom from work just walked in. Go ask him to dance."
Skye thought again how refreshing these kids were, despite their vampire fantasies. She stood and decided to see if Haley was here with Jen's picture. "I'll be back. Keep an eye on the jacket, okay?"
"Hey, sure, no problem," Mike said.
Skye slipped through the crowd easily and found an opening at the bar so that she could look around. Haley was at a corner table. It was set apart from the other tables in a way that hinted this area was reserved, private, and trespassers wouldn't be welcomed.
There was another woman at the table and three men. Skye studied them all. She'd assumed Haley's boyfriend Kyle would be big and muscled, not short and wiry. But there was no doubt in Skye's mind that the red-haired guy sitting so close to the small woman was her very protective boyfriend. His arm was draped possessively over the back of her chair, his hand covered hers where it rested on the table.
The other woman was tall and beautiful. And like Haley, she also wore a necklace with an old, beautiful pendant on it. Her pale skin and blonde hair were a perfect contrast to the ebony-skinned man next to her. The third man at the table was the gorgeous "vampire." As soon as Skye focused on him, the edginess returned full-force. She looked away and met Haley's startled glance.
Consciously or unconsciously, Haley's free hand began worrying her pendant. Skye turned her head slightly in response to the bartender's presence and ordered another beer, leaving it to Haley to make the first move.
A few minutes later Haley passed the bar, disappearing down a short hallway and into the woman's bathroom. Skye paid for the beer, took several sips then followed Haley into the bathroom.
The other woman was nervous but she gave Skye a hesitant smile and retrieved a photograph from the small black purse she was carrying. "Here's the picture."
Skye took it, glancing at it briefly. Jen was a younger version of Haley. They could almost have passed for twins, though Jen favored body piercing and Haley apparently didn't.
The bathroom door opened and the blonde who'd been sitting at Haley's table walked in. Haley turned quickly, leaned into the mirror as though she was checking her makeup. Skye slipped the photo into her pocket and left the bathroom to reclaim her spot at the bar.
She was halfway through her beer when a familiar scent drifted over her, causing her womb to ripple and her vulva to swell and grow slick. She looked up as Rico stopped next to her. "What are you doing here, Skye?"