Skin of a Goddess (Goddess Ascension Book 1) (16 page)

“Well, are they good?” he asks.

I blink, realizing my amazing powers are having little to no effect on him. “Completely ready to be questioned and answer me,” I say in confusion.

I turn to the griffin first. “Are you the murderer?”

“No,” he says, voice sounding glazed, but no less truthful. Hunter confirms his answer with a nod of his head.

“Are you abducting the women here? Are you helping the women be taken? Are you doing anything illegal?”

After questioning him and getting Hunter’s nod of approval, I’m firm in the conclusion that he’s not helping in any way. In fact, the only illegal activity he admitted was pirating music.

I turn to the human, Vincent. He’s handsome, middle-aged, and painfully mortal. “Are you the murderer?”

I wait for a moment, but he still doesn’t say anything. I turn puzzled eyes to Hunter. His eyes are open but completely focused on Vincent. It seems like he needs a bit of extra concentration to get into his mind. I focus on him again and amp up the power.

“Vincent, did you murder anyone? You can trust me. I’m your friend.”

Once again, he says nothing. I turn to Hunter, starting to feel put out. First, Hunter wasn’t affected by my amazing beauty and powers of persuasion. Now this dopey little human appears to be immune too. Or at least, not completely with the program.

“It looks like he’s not reacting to my power,” I admit to Hunter.

He shakes his head. “I can’t read his mind either—it’s completely clouded over. He’s human but connected to a vampire. I think the vampire is protecting his mind and made him semi-immune to glamour.”

“That doesn’t help us at all. What are the possibilities that he’s responsible or involved in things?” I ask.

Hunter once again shakes his head. “I honestly have no idea. I’ve only talked to him once before. Let’s move on with the questioning to see if we find someone else who’s suspicious.”

“I didn’t realize vampires could do that,” I say with a frown.

“His vampire is the coven leader, so maybe he’s more powerful,” Hunter suggests.

I nod, knowing that the coven leader is much like a pack leader.

“Vincent is probably older than he looks.”

He looks at me questioningly. “How so?”

“Vampire companions tend to live longer than humans. If they’re connected to their vampire from the sharing of blood, they can have an extended life,” I explain.

“I wasn’t aware.”

“They’re annoyingly private. Not really a ton of fun unless you find a loner who doesn’t act all secret society.” I shrug. “Who’s next?”

“Werewolves are in a group on their own, visiting the outdoor pool,” Hunter says after consulting his papers.

I grimace. “Yum, wet dog. Lead the way.”

We end up trekking all the way to the other side of the hotel, Hunter stopping every once in a while and perking up at imaginary noises.

“Stay here, and I’ll bring them over two at a time,” Hunter says with narrowed eyes, watching the werewolves swimming around from behind the pool house.

“Sure thing.” I wave him away.

He comes back in a moment with two dopey-looking wolves. They really do look dumb; half-dressed, oversized, and with glazed-over expressions when I hit them with my über hotness. Werewolves are some of the easiest for me to glamour. They love to help me in all ways possible.

“Hey there, sweeties,” I begin and quickly have them eating out of my hand and doing tricks.

Hunter rolls his eyes when I’m done questioning. “They’re clean. I’ll be back with more victims.”

When he says “victims,” it sounds so offensive. We’re the good guys! Of course, I forget all about that when he comes back with two more wolves. One of them is a pretty little girl, and then there’s Olly. Man, if he doesn’t look like a god with his washboard abs.

I lick my lips subtly and say to Olly, “Having a good swim?”

“Would be better if you were there.”

I giggle like a school goddess. “You flatter me! I know you don’t have anything to do with the murder business, but I have to ask anyway. Have you been abducting or murdering lately? Maybe some light torture? Bought someone on the black market?”

Olly gives a little snort. “I don’t have to pay for it.”

“Oh, honey, I believe that,” I purr seductively, watching water drip from his oh-so delicious body.

Hunter growls, “That’s enough. Send him away.”

I snap at him for making me get rid of my eye candy, but dutifully turn to the task at hand. I smile like a friend to the woman, since I know she isn’t instinctively interested in girls. My powers don’t just work on people who are attracted to me. They work on women and men who admire me in platonic ways as well. You can admire beauty without being sexually attracted to someone.

“Hello, who are you?”

She turns to me as if my voice is sunshine and she wants to bask in it. “I’m Beth.”

“What a pretty name for a pretty woman. I have some questions for you, is that okay?”

“Ask me anything,” she says.

“Excellent!” I grin. “Do you know anything about the abductions or the murders going on here at the convention?”

“Cammy was a witness,” Beth says.

I frown. “Is Cammy a friend of yours?”

Beth shakes her head. “I was going to marry her brother, but he died from lung cancer. They knew about me and my family. Cammy doesn’t have any family left besides us. She’s angry at me because I didn’t bite her brother.”

I give a confused blink. “That wouldn’t have done anything. You can’t pass on being a were like a virus.”

“I tried to explain that to her, but she didn’t understand,” Beth says.

“Cammy was there when the second body was found?”

“No, she was at the dance when the three women were taken. She said they were meeting up with some men, but she couldn’t remember what they looked like,” Beth says.

Hunter shrugs at me when I look at him, not understanding where this is leading either. “Beth, do you think Cammy had anything to do with it?”

Her eyes suddenly start to tear up. “I don’t know why she couldn’t remember the men they were meeting. She didn’t drink anything when she was with me, but suddenly acted drunk.”

Hunter and I share a glance.

“Thank you for talking about this with me, Beth. Why don’t you go back to your friends at the pool?” I suggest.

Before she can walk away, Hunter says, “Wait. Has she been spending time with someone new recently?”

Beth turns to him, her eyes seeming a little more aware. I get her attention quickly and make eye contact, pulsing power over to her until she’s once again firmly unaware. After that, I repeat the question that Hunter had asked her.

“A werewolf. Brody, or something like that. They met online at a werewolf grief counseling chat room. I didn’t know he’d be here,” Beth says, her face appearing troubled again.

“It’s all right, I’m sure everything is fine. You couldn’t have done anything more for her or her brother. Go relax and have fun while you’re here. You deserve it,” I tell her. My powers over her will quickly fade as she leaves my presence.

Hunter looks troubled when I turn to him. “When I saw Vincent at the bowling night, he was with a werewolf named Brandon.”

“It’s not a Brody, but they’re similar,” I say.

“I suppose,” he says, but doesn’t sound very convinced. Hunter shakes his head. “I’m not sure about Vincent. When he left Julian and me that night, he was going to go talk to a tiger shifter.”

“Hinky,” I agree.

“Not sounding too great, but questioning him more when he’s immune to our powers won’t help,” Hunter says. “I’ll go get the last three werewolves.”

The next three wolves check out with clean bills. None of them know anything at all, even though one of them is the guy who spoke callously at the assembly to the wild dogs. Guess he’s just an ass and not a full-out sociopath. We’ve lucked out with the schedule, and the group with the tiger shifters is outside too, taking a nature walk and learning about herbs. Won’t be difficult to lead them off the path of righteousness.

“What’s up with the tiger shifters?” I ask him as we go all around the hotel again.

“One of them used to be involved in a carjacking ring. The other one has a lot of unpaid parking tickets and was arrested for public nudity,” Hunter says after checking his papers.

I snort. “You wrote him down for having unpaid parking tickets? No assault charges or anything? Sounds more like a tame little kitten.”

“It’s a girl, actually, and there were a lot of them,” Hunter says defensively.

“Plus public nudity.” I chuckle. “Every self-respecting shifter has been caught out without their clothes on.”

“I’m guessing that rule applies for goddesses too,” Hunter says dryly. “Hush, there they are.”

“Go play fetch, and I’ll wait here,” I say, shooing him away and ignoring his glare.

When he comes back he has a handsome tiger and an exotic female with him. They both move too gracefully, eyes watching me with a predatory air, even after I’ve hit them with my power. It’s the kind of predatory gleam in their eyes that makes their prey want to get caught, badly, I’m sure.

“Hey there, pretty kitties, would you mind answering a few questions for me?” I ask. They both flash me sharp, wicked teeth. I take that as a yes. “Have either of you been naughty and stalked after women so you could steal them away in the night?”

The female tilts her head at me. “No.”

The man grins. “Yes.”

I clarify, “So you can torture and murder them?”

He shakes his head vehemently. “No. To mate.”

“Good boy! Spread around that rare tiger seed and give us some pretty little kittens. You’ve both been very helpful, but you can go back to your nature walk now.” I grin, patting the pretty boy’s head until he rubs against my hand and starts to purr.

“Do I have to?” he asks with obvious reluctance.

I giggle and take my hand away. “Yes, you do. Thank you very much, though.”

I watch them walk away with a little grin.

“You do realize that questioning doesn’t always mean sexually harassing people too, right?” Hunter asks me with some annoyance.

I turn to him with a frown. “I was just being friendly, and it helps them feel more comfortable when I’m friendly. If that includes a little flirting, what’s the harm?”

“That I don’t like it?” he asks.

“Come on, big guy. I’m going home with you, so what’s the big deal?” I ask with a teasing smile.

Hunter gives me a dark look, pretty green eyes narrowed. “That might be more comforting if I knew you came home with me by choice.”

“Details, details.” I wave his protests away. “What do we think? Should we question people further? Go back and make a new list of suspects? Narrow the pool down? Huh, whatcha thinking?”

Hunter’s face turns less pissy and more serious. “I don’t get a good vibe off of Vincent, and I’m not sure what’s going on with the Cammy girl. I don’t know if she really was drunk, or quickly became drunk when she was away from Beth. Either way, not being able to remember who her friends were last seen with doesn’t look good.”

“I can make a few calls to my contacts. I didn’t want to if it wasn’t necessary, but I can.” I sigh.

Hunter gives me a look. “What kind of contacts do you have that would be helpful in this instance?”

“I kind of know someone in the underground. You know, totally living off the books,” I say. “He’s like the gossip queen of the underground. Or black market. Whatever you’re more comfortable with.”

“How do you know him?”

I shrug. “Oh, this and that.”

“Peitho,” he says, his voice a warning.

“It’s kind of Dolos, that guy you saw me with on karaoke night? The god of trickery and such. He’s a lot like Apate, that’s why we’re pretty good friends.”

“You mean that guy you made out with? Right in front of me?” Hunter asks.

I heave a disgusted sigh. “See, this is exactly why I didn’t want to mention it. I knew you’d get your panties in a twist. At this point, getting a bit of info on anything new going on in the underground would be good. Could give us some information so we know more about what’s going on.”

“How so? We have two human suspects,” Hunter says stubbornly.

“One we can’t question, and one who might have lied about being drunk. That’s not a ton to go off of, hate to tell you,” I tell him.

“What exactly could this Dolos know?” Hunter asks.

Frustrated, I reply, “I don’t know that yet, since I haven’t called him! I suggest we go back home, call him, then regroup.”

Hunter suddenly grins his smug dragon grin. “You called my cave
home
.”

“It’s a figure of speech,” I try to backtrack.

“Sure.” He doesn’t sound like he believes me. At all. Stupid dragon ego. “Let’s get away from the hotel, and I’ll change shape. I’ll consult my list of werewolves to see if we can find anyone who matches the description of who was with Vincent. I’ll try to dig up some more information on Cammy as well.”