The Darkest Kiss (Riley Jenson Guardian 6)

"Yes, but the system is still trying to track him down."

"Then give it a kick and make it hurry. This is urgent."

"Everything always is."

True. And it could be that I was barking up the wrong tree, anyway. If this was all connected with Young's sudden disappearance at the end of grade ten, then Ron himself wouldn't be a target. And I couldn't imagine his brother being a target, either, considering what Liander had told me.

Still, Young had circled his picture for a reason, so I had to at least check it out.

"Do you know if Kade has rounded up the other Trollops yet?"

"He's having trouble locating a couple of them."

Which wouldn't put him in a good mood. As he'd been known to say - out of Jack's hearing - he'd joined the Directorate ranks for action, not babysitting duties. "I'll probably head on over to the Rabbit after I check Napier Street."

"You don't get extra for all this unapproved overtime, you know."

"You know I do it for the love of the job rather than the money," I said, voice dry.

She sniffed - a disbelieving sound if I'd ever heard one. "Night, wolf."

"Don't let the bedbugs bite," I replied, and hung up on her snort.

I padded back to the car barefooted. Once there, I opened the trunk and grabbed a plastic bag, dumping my shoes in them. I didn't know how useful forensics would find them, but better safe than sorry. Although it would mean I wouldn't get my shoes back for a few weeks.

I shifted shape to heal the wounds a little more, then grabbed a cloth and cleaned the blood from my arm. After slipping on the spare set of practical black shoes I kept for emergencies, I hopped into the car then drove across to Napier Street. It wasn't that far from Sparkies, so it took me only five minutes or so to get there.

Even so, Cole and his team beat me there.

I grabbed my gun and climbed out of the car. "What, have you suddenly grown wings or something?"

He grimaced. For the first time since I'd met him, he actually looked tired. His face was drawn, there were bags under his eyes, and his chin covered by stubble - though if gray stubble could look good, then his certainly did.

"There's only two teams doing the so-called day shift at the moment, and these people you and Kade are chasing are running us off our feet." He swept a hand through his already tousled gray hair and looked at the dark house in front of us. "We were told to go in with guns, so I wasn't expecting you to be here."

"Thought I'd better be, just in case. I had a run-in with our bakeneko and managed to stab her, but she dove into the river and got away. If she's here, she could be hurting and extremely pissed off."

He frowned. "Cats traditionally don't like water."

"Yeah, but traditionally cats can't change into humans or vary the size of their animal, so I don't think the usual rules can be applied in this case." I waved a hand at the house. "I'll go in first and make sure it's safe."

"Try not to destroy too much of the scene," he said dryly.

I smiled. "I'll do my best."

"Good." He hesitated, and amusement briefly lifted the tiredness from his blue eyes. "And may I just say, that's a lovely lot of leg you're flashing there."

I glanced down, and realized that between my tussle with the bakeneko and my shapeshifting, I'd managed to tear my dress from the knee to the top of my thigh. Luckily for everyone, I'd actually worn panties tonight, otherwise all the goods would be on show. I gave him a grin and a curtsy. "Thank you for the rare compliment."

I walked past him and approached the wrought-iron gate. The house was dark and silent, and I couldn't smell anything more than human.

Once at the door, I grabbed the handle and twisted it. Locked. A quick thump with the shoulder soon fixed that. Obviously, the real Enna Free hadn't been too worried about security, because she didn't even have decent locks, let alone dead bolts.

I opened the door cautiously. The air that rushed out was filled with the richness of jasmine, but underneath it were notes of blood and death.

A clock ticked softly in one of the rooms to the left, but otherwise it was deathly quiet. Literally, in this case. I couldn't smell cat, couldn't sense cat, and didn't think she was here. Just to be sure, I switched to infrared and scanned the rooms for any sign of body heat - large or small.

Nothing.