Draw One In The Dark(106)

"They're the size of that bed," Kyrie said, pointing to the king-size bed behind them. "Or maybe the size of a double bed. Okay, maybe a single bed. But taller. Huge still. Where do you suppose their natural habitat would be? And why wouldn't it have been discovered long ago?"



Keith waved one hand. "Okay, point, point," he said. "But so, we have two shifters. How often is it that shifters get together? Same species shifters? Can you guys like . . . mate in your other form?"



Tom felt a burning heat climb to his cheeks. Without looking he could tell that Rafiel was now staring at Kyrie with a gaze set to smolder. And Kyrie was staring ahead, looking shocked, refusing to look at either of them.



It was funny. Because of course Keith had always assumed that Tom was a player like himself, that he was out there, every night, picking up girls. And of course, Tom's sexual experience, which could be written on the head of a pin, was all in very human form, and had all happened before the age of sixteen.



He threw his head back and laughed. "Keith, you've got the wrong guy, at least where I'm concerned," he said. "The dragons I've known were in the triad. So, I have no idea. Also, the legends are a little quiet on the mating habits of dragons."



"And I had never met another shifter till two days ago," Kyrie said, her voice small and embarrassed. "I suppose it's possible to mate in animal form."



Did she throw a quick look at Rafiel? Tom's heart sank.



"But I wouldn't like to do it," Kyrie said. She sat up straighter in her chair. "For the same reason I wouldn't really like to eat in the shifted form. Even if it's proper food, you know, not . . . people. I like being human. If I'm ever going to have sex, I'd like to be aware of who I'm doing it with and how."



"You've never—" Keith started, then shook his head.



Tom realized he was grinning, and forced his face to become impassive. He hoped Kyrie hadn't noticed.



Rafiel, meanwhile, was shaking his head. "Not in shifted form," he said. "Never. So, I too know nothing about sex between shifters. Though I suppose" he gave Tom a sly look—"that the sex lives of lions are far better documented than the sex lives of dragons."



But he couldn't touch Tom's self-assurance at that point. Kyrie had just as good as confessed that her experience was not superior to his own. He wondered if she'd done it on purpose.



"You guys are a waste of shifting ability," Keith said, sounding vaguely disgusted. "So, you don't know if two shifters of the same kind, different gender met, if it would lead to . . ."



"Kittens in the basket?" Rafiel said.



"Eggs in the lair," Tom immediately interposed not to be outdone.



"Actually," Keith said. "I was thinking more than some species have truly bizarre mating habits. And if we're dealing with a mating pair, which . . . could we be?"



Kyrie leaned forward, holding her coffee cup in both hands, over her knees. "I think we could be, yes," she said. "I think . . . I got a feeling that was the case."



"So, if we're dealing with a mating couple, you know that insects can get really kinky, right? Like all the biting off of heads of males after mating, or while mating, and all that stuff. Is it possible that the killings are part of a mating ritual? Like where the male has to give the female a gift or something."



"Yes, that's quite possible," Tom said, feeling slightly dumb that this hadn't occurred to him. Possibly because in all he'd read of the mating rituals of beautiful jungle cats, there had never been anything about their requiring the gift of a corpse.



"It might be pertinent," Rafiel said. "That I suspect there have been about two dozen people killed, and that they were all or almost all shifters."



"How could you know that?" Kyrie asked.



"I don't know. I suspect. If you remember, I told you I wanted to wait a little before I came here, because I wanted to find out if there could have been more people who disappeared in that area and whose bodies haven't been found yet?" He took a sip of coffee. "Well, I figured it out. At least partway. There are at least fifteen other people who have been missing, all over the last month or so. And they all disappeared from around the Athens. They were all young and therefore we didn't pay too much attention. Otherwise the pattern would have become obvious. But most of them, the families didn't seem sure they hadn't run away, so we thought we'd give it a little longer . . ." He took another sip of coffee. "We're a small police department. Oh, and most people were either passing through or had just decided to move here. Some interesting things—they all seemed to really like the Athens and had been there more than once. And they all had, the sort of relationship with their families and people around them that . . ." He looked at Tom.