“I’m not one.”
“But—”
“Yes, I came to see if I could find out anything about Amber.”
“You’re just looking for a diversion?” Danny said. “You get a kick out of other people’s tragedies?”
She shook her head fiercely. “No way. I hate that kind of thing. I’ve got a good reason for being here. Take it or leave it.”
Danny studied her awhile before he glanced away. “Okay, if you say so.”
“Thanks,” Marley said. “I’m amazed to see Amber’s partner here. I thought she wouldn’t talk to anyone.”
“She won’t. But she wants to get back to work. She’s ambitious.”
The tone of his voice was neutral, but Marley thought something other than her was making him uncomfortable or angry.
“And you don’t think she should be singing again.”
He shook his head. “Not as long as Amber’s missing. It’s not right.”
“People need money to live,” she pointed out.
“Yes.” He shrugged. “I don’t know anything about her, really, except she’s private, just like Amber was. Like she is.” He corrected himself forcefully.
“Are you two friends?” she asked, prepared for Danny to refuse an answer.
“Yes,” he said.
She waited, but he didn’t add any more.
“Do the police know that?”
He shrugged again.
“They’re scratching for leads,” she told him. “They’d want any information you’ve got.”
“I love her,” he said, looking at his hands. “She doesn’t take me seriously so we’re just friends. I think something happened and she took off. Could be her brother. She used to talk about him and I thought he worried her. Maybe she went to look for him.”
“Don’t you think the police could use your ideas?” Marley said, while he kept staring at his fingers, laced tightly together on the table. “Why are you telling me these things when you won’t tell the police?”
“You’re different.” He pushed back on the banquette and stared at her, his lips parted. His eyes darkened and faint lines of color rose high on his cheeks. “I don’t know why I’m telling you. I’ve been desperate. I suppose I…I can feel that you care about her, too. You know her, don’t you?” His whole upper body lunged over the table.
“I do care,” Marley said. She controlled an automatic need to move back from his face. There was nothing new about someone being drawn to her. They felt her empathy and it attracted them. People talked to her, told her personal things that would surprise her if she didn’t understand why it happened.
“You didn’t say who you are,” he said.
She hesitated.
“I’m not dangerous,” Danny said. “Anyone will vouch for me. I’ve been here at Scully’s two years.”
He could say anything, but she had no means of knowing if he was truthful. “Is Amber your girlfriend?”
“No. I told you she’s a friend, but not my girlfriend.”
“Why doesn’t she want more?”
“I can’t talk about that.”
“Okay.” He hadn’t said a word that would help her find Amber. “Where does she live?”
“She’s so private. She wouldn’t forgive me if I gave away the peace she’s made for herself.”
“But you do know where she lives?” Marley persisted. Detective Archer had pretended not to hear the question when she asked him.
Applause broke out for Sidney and the pianist. Sidney had been sitting on a stool, but now she stood and Marley saw that she was tall.
“I do know,” Danny said.
Marley cocked her head. “I thought you did, but I didn’t expect you to admit it. Didn’t the police ask you a lot about her?”
He looked closed, stubborn.
“They did, but you didn’t tell them much.” Suddenly she was uncomfortable and wished she was back in her flat. He had admitted something to her that he’d refused to tell the authorities. Was he trying to gain her trust?
How could she know if Danny had played a part in Amber’s disappearance?
“Why don’t you let me take you home?” he said. “Ben’s covering for me. I’d feel better if I knew you were safe.”
Each little hair on Marley’s neck rose. Her back prickled. “I’d like to finish my drink,” she told him, with no intention of doing so.
“Of course. Take your time. You won’t repeat anything I’ve said, will you?”
She had to lie. “No.”
He walked away, only to come back with her drink before she could decide on the next step. “Why are you looking for Amber?” he said.
The only surprise was that he hadn’t asked that very question before. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Do it anyway.” His voice grew more intense and his lips scarcely moved. “Tell me what you know. You owe me that.”
“I don’t owe you anything.” Marley expelled a breath through pursed lips. Too often she spoke too fast and before thinking enough. “I’m in a bad spot about this, too.”
When he closed the fingers of his left hand around her wrist, Marley winced. She wouldn’t allow herself to try pulling away. “That doesn’t feel so good.” She looked pointedly at his hand.
“If you know anything about what’s happened to her, tell me. Now.” His grip tightened.
“Loosen up, Danny,” a familiar male voice said, and Danny’s fingers went slack. Pain contorted his face.
Marley snatched her wrist away and turned on her seat, shifting back in the booth at the same time.
“You okay, Marley?” Gray Fisher asked, still squeezing a tendon in Danny’s shoulder.
Chapter 7
The longer she slept, the better. Eventually her screams would excite him, but until he was ready, he preferred silence.
Breathing, sounds of the idle, automatic push and pull of air in unsuspecting human lungs raised bubbles of hysteria in his throat.
On it went, unaware that it would soon be silenced. Before long, the human woman would begin her final, endless sleep.
The itching began.
He opened his mouth wide, inhaled long and slow, to hold back the noise that wanted to erupt. His skin grew thicker and the thickening made his body larger. He felt himself swell, felt his spine grow supple and bend forward. Already he wore the loose, hooded black robe he could adjust to cover him completely, no matter how hulking his form became.
Power flooded his bulk and he swayed, reveled in the loose, heavy swing of his limbs.
Fingernails became talons, gradually lengthening, curving, hardening to points as capable of wounding as ice picks.
Beneath the cracked and crazed hide that was replacing skin, his raw flesh stung. Beautiful pain. Agony inflamed his muscles, his nerves, but his purpose only intensified.
Until yesterday, it had been more than two years since he fed his need for fresh death. Far too long. Ah, yes, where he came from, deep beneath this earth in Embran, they fought and killed for supremacy daily. Only the strongest survived and their number were replenished by the young—those of them considered worthy of a chance to live.
But it was here, not in Embran that he wished to remain, among the luscious flesh of humans where sex with them increased his power and destroying those he no longer wanted brought him the deepest satisfaction of all.
His kind were only allowed on earth one-by-one. The Supreme Council feared losing control of the pack if they didn’t keep them together. To earn passage to the surface, a man- or woman-Embran—for the only common element they shared with humans was their sex—the one who got to come had to defeat all who competed for the honor. Some, severely wounded, gave up. Many more ceased to exist.
He had won the prize thirty years earlier and lived among his beloved victims disguised as one of them—except when he needed to resume his rightful form to perform a kill.