WereWoman (11 page)

“Or a preserve in some isolated region,” I said. “That would surely be much cheaper to maintain, with happy animals.”

“Not necessarily, because we would not control the environment and would not get maximum growth. There could be poachers, too. Also, we would not be free to fly by day.”

“You don't fly by day?”

“Our bat forms are quite sensitive to direct sunlight; in fact it is rapidly lethal. It's a side effect of the magic. So at times we turn off the sunlight here, and fly in the gloom. It's highly refreshing. And that is how Vulcan was killed. There was a glitch in the timing of the cycle, and he was caught in the sunlight while flying over the lake. He died within minutes.” Veera shuddered. “It was horrible.”

“He was flying in the gloom, and suddenly the light came on?” Nonce asked, getting it straight.

“Exactly. That should never have happened. We discovered that someone had modified the computer program to make it malfunction, and he was the one caught.”

“Don't you have technicians keeping an eye on things?” I asked.

“We do, and these are your suspects. Any of them could have introduced that error, and perhaps one of them did. We hope you can discover who; we do not want to blame anyone unfairly.”

“Would any of them have reason to kill him?”

“No. Vulcan was popular with the ladies.”

“Jealousy?”

Veera laughed. “I gather you are not familiar with our subculture. We are not romantically possessive. There can be individual liaisons or group liaisons, no jealousy. The only negative is forced attention. Vulcan was smart and handsome; no lady refused him. All hoped he would consent to give them a baby.”

“All?” I asked. “Including you?”

She blushed. “Including me. I was horrified when the light came on out of turn, but I could not help him; I had to get under cover myself.”

“Then you will not mind if I verify your sincerity.”

“Not at all.”

“All you need to do is change form for a moment.”

Veera didn't hesitate. She unwrapped her light robe to stand splendidly nude, sprouted wings and fangs, then reverted to human and re-wrapped her robe.

That was enough. She was innocent. Had she deliberately flashed me? Probably. Did it matter? Probably not. As she said, they had a different romantic culture, and I was a handsome male. Casual trysts were where you found them. Had I not been with Nonce I might have been quite interested. Would such a liaison take? It was possible. All Supes were really subspecies of humans, and though interbreeding was not common (in contrast to sex, which was common), it happened on occasion. But the children were always mundane.

“We will need to check the other suspects similarly,” Nonce said.

We checked them. All were innocent, and broken up about the loss of Vulcan. As far as I could tell, he had not been slain by a Vamp. Someone else must have done it.

But who had pied the light program? It did not seem to be a Vamp, but who else was there? That was the mystery.

“Stay a little longer, and you can watch us disport ourselves in the night cycle,” Veera said.

I glanced at Nonce. “That interests me, for purely shallow masculine reasons.”

“By all means,” she said. “I think male Vamps will be flying too. I hear they can be well hung.”

Soon the light dimmed to comfortable gloom. The Vampires did come out, getting bare, changing, and launching into the air over the lake. They were all fine figures of nudes, female and male; doubtless it was because they had to be trim and healthy to facilitate flying, regardless of the magic boost provided by the blood.

A human bat swooped down, landed before me, and opened her arms to me. It was Veera, in full bat mode, but also delightfully human. I embraced her, and she was as much fun to touch as to look at. “If you are ever in need of company…” she murmured in my ear.”

“I will keep you in mind,” I agreed. “And dream of you between-times.”

She smiled, kissed me without drawing blood, and took off again.

A male Vamp addressed Nonce similarly. “Not today,” she murmured, openly admiring his equipment. “But not far in the future, either.”

It was indeed a pleasant interlude.

“We have three murders and no remaining suspects,” I told Nonce glumly on the way back to the office.

“I feared it would be so.”

“It does seem to be a crime of random opportunity. That's the hardest kind to solve.”

“And we do have to solve it.”

Of course we did. But so far I was spinning my wheels. This was not my notion of a successful PI business.

Chapter 7:

Demon

There was news at the office. “I didn't call you because it could have queered your investigation,” Syd said. “There's been another murder.”

“Just in time,” I said wryly. “We were running out of suspects.”

“This one's a Demon. The Demon Chief knows you're on the case, and figures this could be part of it. Here's the address.”

“You want to come along?” I asked Nonce.

“You bet. I'll take you. I know the Demons.”

I was sure she did. She had probably had an affair with their Chief. It was probably expedient not to mention that.

We came to an amusement park, HELL'S HEAVEN. I had heard of it as being fabulous but expensive, so my limited budget had kept me away. The front sign said RANDOM BARGAIN DAY: ALL VISITORS ADMITTED FREE IF ACCOMPANIED BY GUIDES.

“Oh, one of those,” Nonce said. “It'll be jammed.”

“Free admittance?” I asked. “How often do they do that?”

“About once a week. Visitors watch for it, and flock in when the announcement is made. Other days are charged, and admittance isn't cheap.”

“And individual guides are provided, also free?”

“Yes. They are said to be very knowledgeable and helpful.”

“So the park loses money?”

“Not really.”

“But unless they limit the free passes, most visitors will hold out for the next free day, and business at other times will be low.”

“True. The locals are especially savvy about timing. Tourists less so, so they generally pay unless they can wangle spot free passes.”

What had I missed out on, by not learning more about this park? Free tickets! “I take it that Demons are not ace businessmen.”

“I wouldn't say that.”

I glanced sidelong at her. “Is there something you're not telling me?”

“Of course. A little teasing is good for the relationship.”

I let it be. I would surely find out soon enough.

We joined the line and approached the admittance gate. “We're together,” Nonce told the Demon at the booth.

“One guide per person; that's the rule,” the Demon said. “So you don't get into trouble. Unless you prefer to pay for admittance.”

“Pay!” Nonce exclaimed with finely crafted annoyance. “On a free day?”

“Wear your numbers,” he said, handing us two tags. “So your guides won't risk losing you.”

“What, aren't the attractions marked? How can we get lost?”

“On crowded days, it can happen,” the Demon explained patiently.

We pinned our tags to our shirts. Hers was 923 and mine was 924. That hinted how busy the park was today. The two guides had matching numbers. Nonce's guide was a handsome Demon with small goatlike horns, furry body under his suit, a long forked tail, and cloven hooves. Mine was a lovely Demoness with cute horns and an infernally shapely torso distending her blouse and short skirt. Her tail flicked restlessly; it would not be inappropriate to call her a piece of tail.

“This way, beautiful Witch,” the Demon said, putting a hand on her back as if helping a date.

“We'll go the same way, handsome Were,” my Demoness said. “Unless you prefer to separate and rejoin them in a bit?” Her blouse went translucent, flashing her firmly braless breasts.

“I'd be lost without my date,” I said. In more than one way.

“We'll stay close.” She nudged into me, and somehow I found my arm about her hourglass waist.

“The Tunnel of Love will do to start,” Demon 923 said. “It's a busy day and we need to route around the crowds.”

We got into a four-seater boat with Nonce and her Demon in front, me and my Demoness behind. The boat glided smoothly into the dark tunnel.

“We are invisible,” my Demoness murmured as she guided my arm further around her body and my hand to her blouse. Her anatomy was just as shapely to the touch as it had been to the sight. Was Nonce being fondled similarly? “In fact we could doff our clothing and no one would know.” She breathed deeply, filling my hand.

She was interested in making out like that right in the presence of my date? I did not trust this, evocative as her body and manner were. But her hands were busy, and I felt my clothing loosening. She was undressing me herself. I tried to grab her hands, to stop her, but they puffed into smoke and reformed beyond my grasp.

Then one of her hands reached into my trousers and took hold of my member, which eagerly inflated. “Hey!” I whispered.

Her face intercepted mine. She kissed me, her hands never faltering. I tried to push her away, but wherever I touched her body it smoked out, leaving me with nothing. I was helpless to balk her depredations, and beginning to lose my wish to do so. She was sexy as hell.

Then she lifted herself, slid across, and her bare bottom came down on my exposed groin. “Hey!” I said, almost in an anguish of temptation.

“I think we have indulged enough,” Nonce said as she removed herself from the Demon's lap. “We have actually come to see Chief HellForLeather.”

“What, you are dissatisfied with our service?” her Demon asked, sounding hurt. “We have hardly begun to experience the delights the park offers.”

“I'm sure they are phenomenal. But we are here on business. Please divert the boat.”

“This is highly irregu—” He broke off with a whimper of pain. Nonce had evidently squeezed him where it hurt. That region had, it seemed, been ready to hand, and not subject to dematerialization without defeating its purpose.

“Now,” she said.

The boat changed course in the darkness. I put myself back together as well as I could, and was sure Nonce was doing the same. Soon the craft emerged in an office suite. A formally garbed Demon stood there. His name tag said HellForLeather. “Nonce Witch! What are you doing in the LoveBoat without me?”

“Making a small demonstration,” Nonce said as she stepped out. “My companion hasn't been here before. I wanted him to see your operation in action. Get the feel of it, as it were.”

Oh, the literalness!

“Then you should have let things be. The action was incipient.”

“Yes. I couldn't delay longer.”

HellForLeather shrugged. “Well, come on into the office.”

I got out of the boat. The two guides floated the boat back into the tunnel, frowning. They realized that they had been foxed.

The inner office was lined with television monitors. Each showed a different scene. Some were folk on ordinary rides or exhibits. Some were different, with Demons earnestly talking with numbered visitors. Some were downright naughty, with women riding nude or kissing Demons. One showed the boat we had just vacated, with the two glum Demons in it. Had the Chief been watching us getting busily seduced?

“What
is
this?” I asked.

“There's a reason for the free passes,” Nonce said. “The visitors are the entertainment. The Demons are limited to persuasion, not coercion, and score points depending on how far they manage to get their charges to indulge. One point for a kiss, two points for nudity, three for heavy petting, four for full sex. Something like that. The spectator Demons make bets on the outcome of each case. All are continually broadcast on the park closed circuit.”

So the seeming darkness of the tunnel was actually the brightness of the camera. If I had gotten bare with the Demoness, my body would have been on public display. Considering the state it would have been in, that would have been keenly embarrassing. As it was, she had been well on the way to scoring three points and driving for the fourth. If that was persuasion, coercion would have been downright dangerous! But Nonce had cut it short, after allowing it to proceed just enough so that I could appreciate it from a visitor viewpoint. I suspected the average visitor was literally screwed before he quite caught on, and then not in much position to protest. How could he prove he had not wanted it?
If
he didn't want it. “And the visitors never know?” I asked.

“They never know,” Nonce agreed. “Because if word got out, the enterprise would collapse, and the Demons would lose their prime source of entertainment. Since they are inveterate voyeurs, that would be a fate worse than death.”

“And we are now committed not to tell?”

“Yes. We do not wish to violate Demon privacy.”

The Demons valued their own privacy, but not that of the marks. Par for that course. But there were rules of inter-Clan interaction, and betraying other Clans' secrets was an absolute no-no. I would not tell. But neither would I bring a date here on a free day. Not unless we were both looking for wild partner-swapping. Maybe repeat visitors had exactly that in mind.

“You are here about the murder,” the Chief said.

“Yes. We just learned of it an hour ago.”

“It just occurred four hours ago. I relayed news the moment I learned of it.”

This was my domain. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

“Demon Damne was evidently at home, snoozing in his bottle, when—”

“Bottle?”

“We Demons can dematerialize at will, becoming puffs of smoke. In that form we can rest without disturbance. We do not need beds or bedrooms; a bottle on a shelf will do. This saves us expense; we can make do with smaller apartments among the mundanes.”