looked back to Morgan. “Alex heard screams coming from the dolls when she was in the Dollmaker’s house. While she was there, some of the dolls were broken. She saw what she described as spirits rising from them.”
Blood drained from Morgan’s face. “Are you suggesting that he is somehow trapping the souls of his victims in those dolls?”
Varik nodded. “That would explain your missing records.” He glanced over his shoulder at the lab. “And now he’s after Alex.”
The morning’s shadows had lengthened and crept into the corners of Kirk’s bedroom. He lay on his bed with his head nestled between Jennifer Lee’s widespread legs. She gasped and then moaned softly as he licked the blood from the twin punctures in her upper thigh.
Piper’s attitude toward the new girl had progressively deteriorated the longer Kirk had interviewed Jennifer at Mug Shots the previous night. When he’d suggested returning to his place to finalize their new working arrangement, Piper had insisted on coming with them.
He’d denied her and sent her home. She hadn’t been happy but a few well-placed kisses and whispered promises and she’d relented. Once she was gone, he drove Jennifer back to his place and the two of them partied until late in the night. As a blood bunny, she was working out just fine.
He sank his fangs into Jennifer’s thigh once more. He drew on the wound and blood rushed into his mouth along with discordant memories. She squealed and begged him to do more than bite her.
It was all the encouragement he needed. He grabbed her wrist and spun her around on the bed. Shoving her onto her hands and knees, he knelt behind her and clutched her thin hips, maneuvering her into the desired position. He grabbed both her wrists, yanked her arms behind her back while pulling her toward him, and thrust into her roughly.
She cried out and tried to pull away.
Kirk’s firm hold kept her immobile. He quickly found his rhythm, rapidly sliding in and out of her. Soon they were both panting and lost in the pursuit of their own release, performing a frantic dance to the beat of slapping flesh.
Kirk was closing in on his pleasure when he heard footsteps in the hallway outside the bedroom seconds before the door opened.
Piper entered, carrying two plastic bags and trailing the scent of fried chicken, rice, and soy sauce. “Hey, sweetheart, I thought you might—” She stopped, mouth and eyes wide. The bags hit the floor, spilling their contents.
He never slowed his pace, despite Jennifer’s sudden lack of enthusiasm and pleas for him to stop. “Hi, Piper,” he sneered between sharp intakes of breath. “Be with you in a moment. Almost done here.”
His last word became a loud groan as he climaxed. Breathing heavily, he separated from Jennifer, who ran sobbing to the adjoining bathroom. Kirk collapsed on the bed, smiling. He reached for the beer he’d left on the bedside table, then turned to the still-motionless girl standing in the doorway. Gesturing to the spilled food, he said, “Be a dear, would you, and clean that up before it stains the carpet.” He took a swig of beer. “I’m wiped out.”
Piper seemed to snap out of whatever trance she’d entered, glanced at the mess on the floor, and then back at him. Anger and defiance shone in her previously lackluster eyes. “Clean it up your own damn self,” she shouted and spun on her heel, stomping down the hall to the stairs.
“Get back here!” He threw the beer after her and jumped from the bed to follow.
The bottle shattered on the wall above her head as she scooted down the stairs, screaming.
Kirk vaulted over the banister to land heavily on the sofa, tipping it and breaking the supports underneath. His ankle twisted painfully beneath him.
Piper ran past him, trying to reach the front door.
“Come here, bitch,” he snarled and pounced onto her back, driving them both into a wall. He pinned her between the wall and his naked body. “Do not talk back to me! You understand? Don’t ever talk back to me!”
“You said you don’t fuck the new girls!”
He laughed. “You honestly believed that bullshit? I’ve fucked every single one of my bunnies, including your cousin before I sent her off to be sucked and fucked by someone else, just like the good little whores you all are.”
“Fuck you,” she spat, awkwardly kicking first one leg and then another behind her in an attempt to gain her freedom.