Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand (Kitty Norville 5)

We didn’t stay much longer. Long enough to finish the drinks without gulping them. A gracious host, Dom walked us back to the elevators. He gave us his cell phone number and insisted that we call him if we needed anything or had any trouble. Dom turned out to be a decent guy, as vampires went, but I really hoped we didn’t run into the kind of trouble where we’d need to call him.

I did find one more question before we reached the elevators. “Why doesn’t Las Vegas have any lycanthropes?”

“Ah, I didn’t say there weren’t any lycanthropes. I said there weren’t any werewolves. I think the wolves don’t settle down here because it’s too urban, and the desert outside the city isn’t the greatest place for them. But Las Vegas has lycanthropes.”

“Where? I’ve been looking. I’ve seen plenty of vampires, but no lycanthropes.”

“You been to the Hanging Gardens yet? Big joint a few blocks down on the Strip, the one that looks like a temple.”

I’d seen it, another hulking fantasy edifice s

himmering like a mirage among all the other giant resorts. I hadn’t paid it much attention. I said, “Not yet.”

“There’s an animal act there. One of these magic-show spectacles with trained tigers and leopards doing tricks. Those guys are the closest thing Vegas has to a pack of anything.”

I needed a couple of moments to put two and two together on that one. I still resisted the implication. Carefully, I said, “So lycanthropes are running the show—”

Dom shook his head, and my eyes widened.

“You mean to tell me there’s a performing troupe of tigers and leopards who are actually people?” He just smiled.

Lycanthropes performing onstage in their animal guises. I was totally going to have to check that out. Right now. The idea—it was crazy. They’d have to shape-shift every night. They’d have to control themselves enough to remember their routines. I didn’t think it was possible. And could I convince one of them to come on my show to explain the whole thing by tomorrow?

Ben shook his head. “I’ve heard of a lot of crazy stuff in Vegas, but that tops everything.”

“You don’t believe me, go see for yourself,” Dom said. Almost like a challenge.

Ben was right; it was crazy. Which meant of course I was going to have to check it out.

“Yeah, maybe we’ll do that. Thanks for the tip,” I said. Ben was already edging toward the door. “You know, you could come to the show anyway. Just to watch. I won’t drag you onstage, I promise.”

“I’d love to see you try to drag me onstage,” he said, with just a hint of a menacing glint in his eye. The phrase “sleep with the fishes” popped into my head suddenly.

Dom once again wished us a happy stay, then we were in the elevator.

As soon as the doors closed, both of us let out sighs.

“That wasn’t so bad,” I said, trying to sound positive.

Ben said, “Do you think he was serious? About lycanthropes performing in that show? I can’t even imagine.”

Shifting was terrifying, painful, horrifying. Doing it every day, suffering through that—I had to agree with Ben. I couldn’t imagine it.

“It’d be easy enough to find out,” I said. “Go to the show and smell them out.”

“Right now?”

I shook my head. I couldn’t take much more today. And this was still only the first day here. “Tomorrow, first thing.”

“This is like work,” he said. “This is like networking and making sales calls. I started my own practice so I wouldn’t have to do this sort of thing in a law firm.”

“If I had known we were going to have to do this sort of thing when we took over the pack and helped Rick, I’d have left town.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” He smiled and tucked his arm around my shoulders to give me a hug. I leaned against him and, taking in his warmth, let myself relax for the first time in an hour. “Now, if I’m not mistaken, your next appointment is in our room.”

We gave the tourists in the lobby a thrill when the elevator doors opened and Ben and I were locked in an embrace, kissing, oblivious.

Now I felt like I was on vacation.