Page 62 of Damian’s Conquest

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Gabriel left the flat, leaving him and Naomi to deal with Mrs. Zhang. Damian looked at the old woman and sent his thoughts into her mind.

You were alone all evening. Nobody visited you. You spoke to nobody. You never saw me, or Gabriel, or Naomi. Now sleep.

He turned his head to Naomi and noticed her watch him with a confused look on her face.

“Okay, it’s done, let’s go.” He took her hand, and they quickly left the flat and shut the door behind them.

“That’s how easy it is to wipe somebody’s memory? Just by staring at them?”

It was a little more than that, but to Naomi it would have looked like he wasn’t doing anything. “Kinda. I basically sent my thoughts into her mind. Sometimes it’s necessary. I prefer not to do it if I don’t have to.”

Outside, Gabriel was waiting for them.

“You’re sure you saw Mick with an Asian girl?” Damian asked and pulled out his cell phone. He scrolled through his messages and clicked on the last message he’d received from Eddie. “Did she look anything like the girl on this driver’s license?”

Gabriel looked at it, then nodded. “That’s her. No doubt.”

“Mick never met anybody to sell his blood to,” Damian said. “Mrs. Zhang lied about everything. If the thief didn’t stumble and toss a bottle toward the dumpster like she told Naomi, then how did it get there?” He had a suspicion, but he wanted to make sure that his mind wasn’t the only one going into that direction.

“It must have been planted,” Naomi said with wide eyes.

“That’s the most likely explanation,” Gabriel agreed. “Well, at least we have a partial license plate and the make and model of the car the thief used to get away. Send that to Thomas and Eddie, and they’ll find him. As for why Mrs. Zhang lied…” Gabriel shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. You might want to look into her a bit more.”

“Thanks, Gabriel,” Damian said. “Really appreciate your help.”

Gabriel nodded. “Good luck, guys, and once you have some hits on the license plate, and I assume there’ll be multiple hits given that it’s just a partial, find out from Quinn what staff’s available and track down the thief. Work in teams. We don’t know whether we’re dealing with humans or other preternatural creatures.”

Gabriel jumped into his car and drove off.

“What now?” Naomi asked, while Damian already composed a text message to Eddie.

“I’m sending the partial license plate over to Eddie and Thomas to start working on it,” he explained. “I’ve gotta go to Scanguards, check on a few things, and then I need to be ready to follow up on any hits they get from the license plate search. I can drop you off at your place. It’s not far from the office.” And once he was done for the night, he could pick her up to take her back to his place, or just stay at hers.

“Can’t I come with you? Maybe I can help?”

“Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous.” He didn’t want her anywhere near the thief, particularly since he didn’t know yet whether the thief was human or vampire. This was his job, not hers. She’d helped already more than he’d expected. “I’ll call you later when I know what we have, I promise.”

Disappointed, she sighed. “Fine. But I’m not going home. I’ll swing by my office.”

“Aren’t you worried that you might run into your editor?”

She shook her head. “He hates working late. He won’t be there. And I want to see if I can find out more about Tracy Horng. Maybe I can find some of her friends. They might know where she disappeared to.”

“How?”

“Have you already forgotten that I’m a reporter? I have ways of getting information.”

He had to smile. “You sure do. But be careful. And if you find anything, call me right away.”

“I will.”

She kissed him on the lips, before she turned in the other direction, and Damian hopped into his Porsche. Eddie would need a little while before he got any hits from the DMV, which meant he could take care of something else before he had to be at Scanguards.

28

It didn’t take Naomi long to find out where Tracy Horng worked. And she was in luck: the nail and waxing studio was open until nine p.m. just like the surrounding stores on Union Square. She entered the salon and looked around. Several young women in pink lab coats with white leggings helped customers at their various stations. One girl was waxing a woman’s eyebrows, while another employee was applying makeup for an older woman with blotchy skin.