weren't legally allowed to have a relationship with anyone under the age of eighteen.
Not that it ever stopped them.
Sifting through the layers of her mind did indeed reveal a male imprint, so he'd definitely been messing with her thought processes. Which meant she'd have to go to the Directorate for deprogramming. I might be strong enough to do it myself, but it wasn't something I actually knew how to do. I could control or read minds right up there with the best of them, but undoing the damage others had done was work for a specialist. And that wasn't me.
But I'd been right about one thing-she wasn't seventeen. She was barely even sixteen.
'How long have you been living here?' I asked.
She sniffed and wiped a pale hand across her nose. 'Nine months. He treated me very nicely.'
He'd have to, given she was underage when they first became lovers. The vampire community might look the other way when it came to sex and youngsters, but only for as long as there was nothing that could draw attention to themselves or their community. A mistreated underage lover would certainly do that. 'And you were lovers?'
'Of course. Me and Mandi both were.'
'And is Mandi also human?'
She nodded. 'Her room is the next one along.'
'But she wasn't with you when you found the body?'
'No.' A sob broke through. She squeezed her eyes shut, but tears leaked out regardless. 'How could someone do that to him?
'That's what we're trying to find out,' I said softly. I reached across and took her hand in mine. Her flesh was cool, the tips of her fingers almost blue. It made me want to ask just how often Shore had been feeding off her. 'Were you and Mandi his only lovers?'
She shook her head. 'We couldn't be. He had a voracious appetite.'
Most vampires did, I thought with an inner smile. But some of us were more capable of handling the situation than others. 'Can you remember seeing anyone new in the last few days? Anyone who you thought acted strangely?'
'No. I mean… He had new lovers all the time, but there was no one I'd consider strange.'
'But how many of those new lovers appeared within the last week?'
She frowned. 'Maybe two? There was a Rita, and I think the other one's name was Vicki. Vicki Keely, actually. Marty introduced her to us. She was young.'
I frowned. 'How young?'
She shrugged. 'Maybe fifteen, sixteen? She looked nervous, too. Like she didn't want to be there.'
Which suggested she wasn't under any sort of vampire 'persuasion,' because second thoughts wouldn't have shown. 'If we brought in an artist, would you be able to give us an image of them both?'
She nodded. I squeezed her hand, then released it and sat back in the chair. 'Do you know where he met the two women?'
She shrugged. 'Probably at one of the strip clubs. He used to enjoy going to those.'
Her tone suggested she didn't approve and again a smile twitched my mouth. Humans had such strange ideas when it came to sex. I mean, here she was, barely legal, knowingly sharing her vampire lover with other women, and yet she turns up her nose at him visiting strip clubs? What was with that? 'Do you know which ones?'
'No. I'm not able to get into them for another couple of years.'
She might be under a geas, but it wasn't as complete as her vampire had presumed, because the legal age for getting into strip clubs was eighteen.
'So he never mentioned a favorite?'
She frowned. 'There was one. Man Hard, or something like that.'
'Man Hard? Really?'
She shrugged. 'I don't know. I told you, I never really listened when he was going on about the clubs.'
'So did he ever bring home women from those clubs?'
'The strippers? Yeah, a couple of times. He seemed to like them showing us how to strip. Like we don't know how to take clothes off or something.'
'Compared to a professional stripper, you probably don't.'
Her blue gaze flashed up to mine. 'I strip better than any of them bitches did. And I was built better.'
I resisted the urge to tell her there was more to life than boobs and stripping, and said, 'So, did either of the last women he bought home strip for you all?'
'No. He just shuffled them into the bedroom, like. One of them was a screamer, though.'
I barely managed to contain my smile. 'Which one was she?'
'Vicki. The reluctant one.'
Who obviously wasn't so reluctant in the end. 'And she worked at Man Hard?'
'I think that's where he met her, yes.'
Then Vicki from Man Hard would need to be talked to-though whether she or the club was the connection or not was anyone's guess. 'And there's nothing else you can tell me?'
'I don't think so.'
I pushed to my feet. 'If you do think of anything, contact the Directorate.' And if she didn't, someone from the Directorate would follow up with her regardless.
She nodded and wiped a hand across her nose again. I headed out. Cole was kneeling near the victim's head. 'You ever heard of a strip joint called Man Hard?'
'Now why would you think I'd be visiting strip joints?' he said without looking up.
'Uh, because you're a man?'
He snorted softly. 'Being a man doesn't automatically mean I have a preference for visiting strip clubs.'
'Well, being a werewolf doesn't automatically mean I'm a whore, but half the world holds that opinion of us.'
'Touche.' He flashed me a grin that was more than nice. 'Doesn't change the fact, though. I don't visit clubs. Stripper or wolf.'
'You must live a sad and lonely life, Cole Reece.'
'Only in comparison to some werewolves. By wolf shifter standards, I'm very outgoing.'
Then the wolf shifters had very different standards from the rest of the supernatural community. 'Found anything else of note?'
'Dust.'
'Dust?'
'Yeah. Not the sort of dust that generally accumulates around houses, either. This stuff appears to be herbal.'
I frowned. 'There was dust at both Armel's and Bovel's, too.'
Cole nodded. 'It's been at all three scenes. I'd hazard a guess it's the same, but we won't know until we get the samples to the lab.'
'So how is this dust important?'
'That I can't say.' He paused to seal the bag. 'Shore's safe has been opened, just like the rest of them, though this murder isn't as violent as the second one.'
'Maybe because he has closer neighbors.'
'Could be.'
'You'll let me know if you find anything?'
'You know, you could read reports like a normal person.'
I grinned. 'But why would I do that when it's so much more enjoyable hearing your silky voice?'
'I'm not ever sleeping with you, you know that, don't you?'
'Facts have never stopped the fun of trying.'
He snorted softly. 'Will you just get out of here and let me work?'
I gave him a break and left. Once back in the car, I did a search on the strip club that Anna had mentioned. There was nothing on record, but that didn't mean the club didn't exist. It might simply mean that it was one of the underground ones.
And I knew exactly who would know. I pulled my cell phone from my pocket, flicked the vid-button, then rang Ben.
