I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the pain where my conscience bore a hole through my chest. “Old habits die hard, I guess.” We stood there like that for a few minutes. Finally, I relaxed enough to let out a relieved breath. I knew that soon I’d have to come clean to Adam. I just hoped it would happen later rather than sooner.
Adam pulled away first. “Speaking of Slade helping us…” He turned and lifted something from the bar. The item was a large zip-top baggie I hadn’t seen before. “He gave us our first clue.”
My eyebrows shot to my hairline. From what I could see, the thing in the baggie was nothing more than a black clump. “What is it?”
“See for yourself.” He offered the bag to me.
When I took it, I realized the black thing was actually a glove. Leather, or a decent imitation. I turned it over to inspect the palm. Thin silver spikes covered the surface. “What are these for?”
“You’ve never seen a glove like that before?”
I shook my head. “No, why?”
He shrugged. “According to Slade, it’s called a vampire glove. I figured you might have run across one once or twice in your former life.”
I frowned down at it and gently fingered the spikes. “Can’t say that I have. What’s the deal?”
“Slade said they’re commonly used in the S&M community,” Adam explained. “The spikes mortals use usually aren’t sharp enough to draw blood unless some intense pressure is applied. They’re mostly for skin stimulation, I guess. But apparently, in the vamp S&M scene, they modify them to cause instantaneous bleeding for their blood-sport games.”
“I had no idea.” Not that I was a prude or anything, but I never considered such a thing existed. Sexual blood play wasn’t something I’d really explored much. Too many control issues, I guess. In fact, Adam was the only sexual partner I’d ever fed from, and even that was just the once. “Well, this certainly supports my theory that the murderer was a vampire.”
“Or someone who wanted us to think it was a vampire.”
I looked up quickly. “You think this is a frame job?”
Adam shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know what I think. I just don’t want to rule out any possibilities until we have more evidence.”
“Obviously we need to track down the owner of this glove.”
Adam shot me his trademark grin. “Already ahead of you. Slade graciously offered me a list of the top vampire sex shops in Manhattan. I figure we’ll start there and see if we get any leads.”
Rhea’s warning to avoid anything stressful flashed through my head. Probably she wouldn’t include visiting fetish shops as relaxing activity. But now that we had a lead, I could feel my old fire igniting in my belly. The one that loved a challenge. It’d been too long since I’d had one I’d almost forgotten the adrenaline rush. “Sounds like a plan.”
Just then, the door to the apartment opened. Giguhl strolled in. He had a pair of roller skates hanging over his shoulder. “What up, playas?”
“Where have you been?” I asked.
“The girls and I were having some skating practice in the courtyard.”
“How’d it go?” I asked.
He shook his head sadly, his horns swishing from side to side. “Pitiful. I need some more power on the team or we’re never going to win our first match.”
I cleared my throat meaningfully. Giguhl pursed his black lips and looked me up and down. “Don’t be desperate, Red. It’s beneath you.”
My mouth fell open. “I am not desperate.”
“Anyway.” He rolled his goat-slit eyes. “What are you two up to?”
“We’re just about to head out,” Adam said. “Orpheus asked us to help find the ass**le who killed Marty.”
Giguhl’s eyes lit up. “Really? Why didn’t you tell me Team Awesome has a new case to solve?”
I tilted my head and shot him a look. “Team Awesome doesn’t have a case—Adam and Sabina do.”
He put a claw to his heart. “That hurts, Red.”
“We figured you were too busy with your Roller Derby stuff to help out,” Adam said to soften the rejection.
“Are you kidding? I’m never too busy to fight crime. Where are we going?”
Adam and I exchanged a look. The minute we told Giguhl where we were headed there’d be no stopping his involvement. While we silently debated whether to tell him, Giguhl spotted the glove. He grabbed it from my hand. “Oh, shit, is this one of those S&M gloves?”
I shot the demon an incredulous look. “How in the hell did you know that?”
He raised a scraggly black brow. “Bitch, please. I have all sorts of knowledge I haven’t even begun to lay on your ass.”
I raised my eyebrow and waited.
He grimaced. “Okay, fine. Cinnamon overheard Slade and Adam talking at Vein and called me. But still, I can totally help you guys. Can I pleeaaase go with you to the sex shops?”
I looked at Adam. He sighed and said, “All right, but you go in cat form and you behave yourself or else.”
“Really?” The demon tilted his chin down to shoot Adam a blunt look. “Has that ever worked with me?”
“Promise, or you’re not going,” I said.
“Fine, geez.” He crossed a claw over his heart. “I promise I’ll try to behave.”
“Fair enough,” I said, knowing that was the best I could hope for from a Mischief demon. “Let’s head out.”
10
Two hours and five shops later, we were running out of steam.
“Who knew there were this many sex shops in Manhattan,” I observed as we approached the next store on the list.
“Are you kidding?” Adam said. “The list Slade gave me has twenty shops on it and he said that’s just the ones vampires might frequent.”
From inside the canvas tote, Giguhl added, “This would go a lot faster if you guys allowed me to sneak into the back rooms of these places.”
“Dream on,” I said. The last thing I needed was to let a hairless demon cat loose inside an S&M dungeon.
“Party pooper,” he grumbled.
“Let’s hope this next place offers some sort of clues. We’re burning moonlight,” Adam said.
I squinted up at the discreet sign over the door that read SPANK. According to the note Slade made on the list, this place catered to the wealthy kink connoisseur out front but in the back was a vamp-only dungeon.