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 rememberwhathad 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 hehadat 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?”
