Dangerous Games

His house was another surprise. A white picket fence lined the front yard, and the small, weatherboard home looked in serious need of not only a good lick of paint, but the services of a gardener. To say the plants had overrun the garden was the understatement of the year.

'Where's the mansion?' I said, as he helped me out of the car. The luscious scent of lavender and eucalyptus spun on the air and I breathed deep. Some of the tiredness clawing at my body eased under the freshness of the air.

'The mansion is in Brighton. That's my house. This is my home.' He wove his fingers through mine and led me down the steep steps. The deck's wooden flooring creaked as we walked across it and I warily looked down as he stopped to open the door. 'Is this thing going to support the weight of two people?'

'It's old, not rotten.' He pushed open the door. 'Welcome to my world.'

His world was warm and comfortable, and totally the opposite to anything I'd ever imagined him living in. The house itself was tiny, consisting of little more than two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and living room. And yet there was nothing claustrophobic about the place. Between the Baltic pine floorboards, stonework and rich paintwork, the whole house exuded a warm airiness and peace that just felt… right. And this feeling was aided and abetted by furniture that was well-worn and yet comfortable.

'Lovely,' I said, wandering over to the back windows. His yard sloped down to the banks of the Yarra itself, and the view beyond was incredible. If not for the occasional glimpse of a roofline, it would have been easy to believe we were alone in the wilds.

'What would you like for breakfast?' he said from the kitchen. 'Pancakes? Bacon and eggs?'

I looked over at him and smiled. 'Would both be greedy?'

'Both it is.' He grabbed a frying pan from under the bench and started messing about. I watched for the sheer pleasure of watching a gorgeous man cooking, then shook myself into action and said, 'I've got to ring Jack. What's the phone reception like out here?'

'There's no phone in the house. If you're using your cell, you'd better go outside.'

He threw me a key. I dumped my handbag onto the nearby chair, grabbed my phone, then unlocked the door. Outside, the sunlight dappled through the trees and the air was quite cool. Somehow, the tranquility of the setting more than made up for any chill.

I walked down to the far end of the balcony, then leaned on the banister and called Jack.

'Well, good to see you're back to bad habits,' he said, by way of greeting.

'Boss, don't expect miracles. Especially when I've been working my ass off on behalf of the Directorate.' Which was no less than the truth. My ass still smarted. I gave him a brief rundown of events, then asked, 'You found out anything more about Karen Herbert yet?'

'There's been no sign of her, and she's been missing from work for several days. But given our workload, she's currently listed as low priority.'

Meaning he'll only start to worry if she turns up dead somewhere. Bastard. 'What about Gautier?'

'What about him?'

'Do you think he's behind the sudden rise in baby vamps and would he be doing it just to piss us off?'

'Probably.'

'So have you figured out how did he manage to walk out of that flat when it was past sunrise?'

'All he needed to move around in was a van with blacked-out windows.'

'If there was a van around, the old biddy next door would have seen and reported it. She didn't, so there wasn't.' I paused. 'Dunleavy and his girlfriend must have known something pretty vital to be killed the way they were. Did a full background check reveal any clues?'

'No. But the security tapes from the Cattle Club show Trudi and Jin working together on several occasions. Maybe she overhead something she wasn't supposed to.'

Maybe. But that was something we'd never know now. I scratched at an itch on my leg irritably. 'Here's another odd one for you, boss. How can Jin, who's listed as human and feels human, defeat a vampire?'

'I don't know.' He paused, and I could almost hear his brain ticking over. It wasn't hard to guess in what direction. Eventually, he said, 'But I think you need to hang around him and find out.'

'Like that's a surprise.'

He snorted softly. 'Hey, you admitted you enjoyed yourself.'

'That's beside the point. There's something more going on with his brand of sex, Jack. There's an odd energy in the air—something I've never felt before.'

'Does it feel dangerous?'

'No. But—' I hesitated, not sure I could fully explain the odd mix of unease and desire Jin's energy inflicted. 'I'm a werewolf, Jack. There is no way known sex with a human should leave me as shaky as I was feeling this morning.'

'Unless he's some kind of emotive vampire.'

'Meaning he feeds off emotion?' Which is what Quinn was probably getting at when he said blood vamps weren't the only kind out there.

'Yes. Some feed off pleasure, some feed off pain. Some like a mix. fin sounds like the latter type.'

'So why does he read as human?'

'I don't know. He shouldn't.'

'If he was an emotive vamp, could he beat a regular blood vamp? One who wasn't a baby?'

'As a genera! rule, no. Emotive vamps are more energy beings than physical beings.'

Well, Jin was definitely physical. 'So how can I protect myself against his feeding?'

'You can't. You just have to ensure you take a break between sessions and get some food into you. The richer the better, because it refuels your energy faster.'

Which was why Jin had been feeding me gooey chocolate cake last night, obviously. 'So, even though he's sucking down emotions, I have to eat to keep my physical energy up, same as with regular vamps?'

'Afraid so. Though emotive vamps do tend to leave you a little more strung out emotionally for a few hours afterward.'

I must have slept through that period of recovery, because I was feeling okay by the time I'd left Jin's. 'And if I don't eat and refuel? Can it become dangerous?'

'Well, he could drain you to the point that you're physical unable to defend yourself, but he can't kill you with his feeding as a blood vamp can.' He paused. 'See if you can grab some hair samples. We'll run some tests and see exactly what we're dealing with.'

'He said he'd ring tonight, so I'll see what happens.' I paused. 'Have you decoded whatever was written on the inside of the ring?'

'Not yet. It appears to be some form of glyphs. We're trying to find a match.'

'Anything else of interest in Cole's report, then?'

'Yeah, you were being a pain in the ass at the scene. Not that that's a surprise.'

'Hey, I was just asking questions. He needs an attitude adjustment.' And a good dose of werewolf sex. 'How did Dunleavy actually die?'

'Heart attack.'

I raised my eyebrows. 'Really?'

'The initial attack happened during the skinning, the fatal one after eleven.'

Which was about when I'd been entering his flat. The poor man probably thought I was Gautier coming back to finish him off. 'What about the time of death of the woman?'

'About eight. Which means Gautier had to have some means of getting out of there without facing sunlight, even if the old girl next door didn't see it.'

'Logically, speaking, I'd agree. But I've just got a feeling something more is going on.'

'You tried to clarify that feeling?'

'I can't clarify something that's as tenuous as a feeling.'

'Yes, you can. You just need more training.'

'What I need is more sleep. Especially if you want me out with Jin tonight.'