Sun Broken (The Wild Hunt #11) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,39
Fang?” Yutani waited, but I shook my head. “It’s a vampire club down in the Catacombs. A kink club. If Mendin met somebody down there…”
“It could easily be a place where someone might hang out looking for victims. But we can’t just assume that anybody frequenting a kink club is dangerous.” The last thing I wanted to do was go on assumptions. It was a good way to veer off in a wrong direction, and it also was a good way of stigmatizing people.
“I would be the first to agree, normally, but I’ve been to Fire & Fang. It’s no simple BDSM club. It’s for hard-core players, of all races. And when the vampires play, they play for keeps.” Yutani paused, chewing his lip. Finally, he said, “I don’t discuss my personal life much, but I think you’ve figured out that I’m about as far from vanilla as you are from being welcomed into the Fae cities.”
I almost blushed. I had realized from early on that Yutani was into kink, and he was also a top in the D&S scene. “Right.”
“Well, after one visit to Fire & Fang, I knew I’d never go back. The whole consent and safe-word concept doesn’t play out very often there, and that’s one of the rules I do play by. I actually would have reported some of what I saw, but the vampires hold a lot of power with the judicial system, given their old-money sway over the financial district. I knew that getting on the bad side of the owners would bite me in the butt.”
I chose not to remark on the fact that he went there in the first place. What Yutani did in the bedroom was his own business. “All right, so Mendin visited the club. Or he had a visitor who did and who left the matches. Why would a killer preying on those who work with death magic go there instead of a guild?”
“Several possible reasons. Guilds don’t associate much with necromancers and those who do, have exacting rules. The guilds are under a lot of scrutiny, and strangers to any of the legit ones would be eyed suspiciously. It’s also easier to isolate a spellcaster who isn’t a member of a guild, one who works on their own. Mavericks tend to be loners and from what Talia has told me, Mendin didn’t have a wide circle of friends.”
“Okay, that makes sense. What about Chaya? Isolde’s wife? Do you think she had any connection to Fire & Fang?” It seemed odd to me that someone who volunteered at a women’s shelter would frequent a club like that.
“That’s a good question.” Yutani tapped out a note on his tablet. “We should check into the other victims, as well. Were you and Viktor going to go interview them?”
“I think so, though enough time has passed that I doubt we’ll find out much that’s useful. However, the cops weren’t all that thorough in their investigations, so who knows?” I sat back in my chair, my alarms going off. “I have a premonition that you’re onto something with this.” I tapped my pen on the desk. “I don’t want to wait on this. I’ll call Isolde, and you call the other families. Be discreet, but see if any of the other four victims frequented that club.”
Yutani nodded. “I’ll check the reports and decide who to contact. Fire & Fang isn’t a club name you bandy around like the Falcons Fraternity, or the Loyal Order of Lions.” He stood, stretching. “Hey, thanks.”
“For what?” I asked, flipping through my notes to find Isolde’s phone number.
“For not being catty, or nosy, or making smart-assed comments.”
I gazed up at him. His dark eyes were piercing, and I could see the Great Coyote’s chaos behind them. “I’ve been the butt of too many jokes and nasty remarks because I am who I am. My blood makes me a target. Sexuality and what drives it…those are as much a part of you as blood. It’s part of who you are, Yutani. I’ve always had a sense about you, but like my heritage, it’s nobody’s business but your own.”
Yutani held my gaze. “You are Herne’s woman, and I will forever respect that. But if you weren’t…”
I finished the thought for him. “Yutani, I like you. It took me awhile to warm up to you, but I do like you. But even if I weren’t with Herne, I’m not cut out to be a sub. And that’s who you’re looking for.