“No, it was just a strange coincidence.” She set her drink on a side table, then reached onto the desk, grabbed a rubber band and twisted her hair onto her head before snapping the band in place.

Her hair was a messy knot, her neck long, and she looked damned good. He took a swallow from his own glass.

“I don’t like this.” He felt an uncomfortable anxiety creep through him as the kernels began to pop and the smell of hot butter filled the room. “If the girls were really abducted—”

“They had to have been.” She nodded. Certain.

“And you’re living here.”

“Hey, I didn’t know, okay?” She gave him a hard look as the muted sound of corn popping increased. “But it doesn’t matter anyway. I’ve changed the lock on the door and fixed the broken latches on the windows. I’m as safe here as anywhere. Maybe more so. If someone is really behind their”—she motioned to the pictures on the charts as the corn popped wildly—“disappearances, and I believe someone is, then he won’t show up here again. Lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same spot.”

Jay shook his head. “We’re not talking about some freak of nature.”

“Aren’t we?” she asked, her voice suddenly low.

Her tone arrested him. “What do you mean?”

She picked her words carefully. “I think whoever’s behind the girls’ disappearances is into something really dark. Evil.”

“Evil?” he repeated.

She nodded and he saw her shiver. “I think we’re dealing with something so vile and inherently depraved that it might not even be human.”

“What are you saying, Kris?”

“I’ve been doing a lot of research. On vampires.”

Jay’s breath expelled on a laugh. “Okay. You had me going there.”

“I’m dead serious.”

“Oh, come on. You don’t believe in all that pop-culture-fiction-romantic—”

“There’s nothing romantic about this,” she cut in. “And do I believe in vampires? Of course not. But some people do, and you know what? If a person believes something is true, then it is. At least for him or her.”

“So whoever’s behind the girls’ disappearances believes in vampires. Is that what you’re saying?”

“I can hear you laughing inside.”

“I’m not. Honest.”

“What I’m saying is: this guy believes in vampires, or maybe he believes he’s a vampire. I don’t know. But a person like that, Jay? Someone deluded or obsessed…They’re dangerous. This guy is dangerous.”

A whisper of something slid over Jay’s skin. Fear? Premonition? “Maybe you’ve let your imagination carry you away,” he said, but could hear the uncertainty in his own voice.

Kristi simply shook her head.