Bound to Shadows Page 0,25

were obviously either tired or not getting what they wanted from their parents.

Something I could look forward to if I agreed to Liander's and Rhoan's plans.

Depending, of course, on whether everything went to plan and the pregnancy and birth went off without a hitch, the disbelieving side of me felt obliged to add.

And really, when had anything in my life gone off without a hitch?

I worried lightly at my bottom lip, and then thrust the concern aside as I fell in step beside Kade. Now was not the time for these sorts of thoughts. Work first, babies later.

"So when was the last attack?" I asked, watching the roller coaster roar overhead, the screams of the people lingering in the air long after the carriages had sped by.

"Last Saturday. He seems to be active only on the weekends." Kade showed his badge to the woman at the ticket counter, but she basically waved him through without even looking at it. Which didn't mean she wasn't looking at Kade - and the amused twitch of his lips suggested he was more than a little aware of it.

"Don't tell me the ticket lady is yet another conquest," I said, voice dry. "Jack won't be pleased if you've been fooling around during investigations."

He might be all for using sex as a tool to get information from suspects, but I very much doubted he'd believe the ticket seller would have any information that couldn't be gained through less involved methods.

"There's been no fooling around as yet," he said cheerfully, "but she's been most helpful during the investigation and is definitely a possibility once this case is handled,"

I shook my head in disbelief. "How can your herd not be satisfying your sexual needs?"

"They are," he said, a devilish glint in his eyes. "But there's always room for a little outside fun. Keeps the little man interested."

I snorted. "There's nothing little about your man."

"Totally true." He waggled his eyebrows at me. "Want a hot dog?"

"Nope, but you can buy me some cotton candy. The pink one, not the blue one."

He did, and I groaned in delight as I bit into the overly sweet spun sugar. It was heaven itself. "So," I said, licking the sugary goodness from the side of my mouth. "What are we going to do? Just wander around and wait for him to attack someone? Or are we going to check out the underbelly of this place and see what we can find?"

"I've checked every ride, and I haven't been able to spot anything."

Which didn't mean that I couldn't, if only because I had the advantage of infrared which could pick up body heat. And of course, vamps did have body heat, despite how they were often portrayed in movies and in literature. They only got cold if they weren't feeding enough.

But Kade knew that, so I didn't bother pointing it out. "What makes you think he's made the park his home rather than simply arriving with the weekend crowds?"

"Maintenance people have reported seeing something moving around after hours, but apparently whatever - whoever - it was disappeared before anyone could track it."

"None of the maintenance people have been attacked?" Kade shook his head, and I frowned. "That's rather odd, isn't it?"

He shrugged. "Maybe he's an older vamp who only needs to feed a couple of times a week."

Quinn was about as old as they got, and while he could go a long periods without feeding, he really needed to take blood every day to keep at his optimum levels of fitness and strength. Either this vampire was on a diet - and I couldn't ever imagine a vampire going though that willingly - or he was getting his meals from something other than humans. Like pigeons. There were certainly enough of them around - although there'd have to be a fairly high kill ratio to satisfy a vamp. Still...

"Don't suppose anyone has reported an increase in the number of dead pigeons, have they?"

He blinked. "Pigeons wouldn't have enough blood to satisfy a vampire."

"No, but if we're dealing with a small vampire, then a few drained pigeons might keep him going. It might also explain why he isn't going after adults. He might be stronger than a human, but maybe the size difference intimidates him."

"Good point. I'll ask."

I nodded. "A vampire also needs protection from the sunlight, and I would have thought the only viable places like that here would be places maintenance would need to go on a regular basis." And while vampires