Enigma

She was baffled would be an understatement. That woman had taken off just like that. She huffed, adjusting her hairs, frustrated and amused at the same time. Jennifer! She sighed. It had been her aura's fault. Her presence had been mind numbing. And most importantly, her charm had failed. Never in the entirety of her existence, had she been denied something or someone she wanted. But Jennifer did not succumb, and broke through. Laura laughed loudly, sauntering out of the club. It had to be her! She had to have her, as soon as possible.

She licked her lips devilishly, energy flowing through her body at the mere reminiscence of the kiss, the touch.

"Amour!" She chuckled yet again, and disappeared into the darkness of the alley.

*****

Jennifer plopped on her bed, wondering. It was so strange. The lust, the need, the haze that had overtaken her system could no longer be felt. As if they had never been there. After highs, came low. It felt like that. She had been feeling a little lethargic since after the kiss. The intense throbbing shaking her system was there no more. Even the reminiscence of it all, felt like a distant memory. It was weird. Her body was still thrumming but the intensity had simmered down, to something normal. Normal – it had been that one feeling that had evaded her up to this point.

Not to mention the alarm bells ringing in her head. Pull away- these words had been way too clear for her conscious to be conjuring them.

Jennifer pondered hard before shaking her thoughts away. She had work to do and bills to pay!

Crossing her legs, she pulled open her laptop and clicked open a folder. As the file opened, Laura stared back, her peculiar eyes shining through. Truly hypnotic!

Jennifer then moved the cursor down and started going over the details.

[ Laura-

Last name- unknown

Age – unknown

Recently moved into the Villa 343 on the Buckmann street, Vance.]

This was all the information she had been presented with. And so, Matt and she had spent the last two weeks tailing after Laura and scrounging the database. The latter offered nothing but did give her an insight into Laura's character – suspicious enough to not be remotely mentioned anywhere.

But having her followed had proved fruitful. There had been a reason she had been at Devil's lair looking the way she did. Over the last two weeks, Laura had frequented Devil's Lair every day, leaving with a plus one every time.

So maybe the woman had quite an appetite but no preferences. On some days she would be accompanied by men while on others it was women. There was one similarity though- all of them were exceptionally gifted. One was a tennis player, other a chess champ then there was a comic artist, piano enthusiast, a famed ballerina and so on. And so she had put on her best face to seduce the snake- a mystery author ought to be gifted no? Just kidding, her book didn't even sell 100 copies. Laura walking upto her had been but a pure gamble.

Anyway, their client, Mrs. Haworth's daughter, Angelise had kept Laura company between previous 16 and 18, as she had been told. Now, Angelise was quite passionate about beat-boxing- the key word being 'was' for she had lost all her motivation since her last tryst with Laura. And that was why Mrs. Haworth wanted Laura investigated, to know if she had done something objectionable to her otherwise lively daughter. The police could not be involved for there was no decisive evidence.

It was strange indeed. She had interviewed quite a few people, where some confessed to have been in a slump but had recovered now while others expressed an almost sudden lack of motivation and life and then there was James, the tennis player who had washed off that sudden fatigue with a day off. Just like her, he had left midway owing to an emergency.

And just like him, she was feeling drained!

'Had I stayed another minute, I wouldn't have been able to leave. My mind was real close to meltdown'

She recalled his words. Hadn't it been the same for her?!

"What the---!!

Jennifer shot up from the bed and starting pacing around the room. As bizarre as all this was, it did make sense.

The more was the time spent with Laura, more was the delirium. And the symptoms were specifically severe in those who she had taken home.

Bravo! Jennifer clicked her fingers in realization. Laura must've spiked their food or drinks.

"But then— she paused. Then why did she go numb? She took no such thing from Laura. "It could've been her perfume!"

"No", she shot down her own theory shaking her head. Had it been the case, others would have suffered too.

"It has to be the kiss then. Her saliva must've been laced with a drug that she has immunity to".

She nodded satisfied with her deduction. And to solidify it with substance, she had just the right plan.

"But before that", she turned on her heels, walked over to the bed and started documenting all the statements and possible deductions.

"Ms. Haworth did say that Angelise had improved a lot. Whatever this substance is, must exit the system on its own with time so Angelise will get better soon", And concluding the findings till now, she mailed them to Ms. Haworth.

Jennifer yawned, her eyes fleeting to the clock. 2.15 AM. Just one last thing to do.

Picking her phone, she dropped a message to Matt and then proceeded to dial Danny. It had been two weeks since then. He had not called and her calls were not connecting.

"Hey Dan, give me a call as soon as you can. Or I will kill you when I see you...I hope you are fine so yeah, please call". With the voicemail sent, she fell back on the bed with her arm thrown over her eyes.

"So much trouble!" And soon she drifted into slumber.