“You know him, Joel. He will say something. And with that reporter sniffing around I don’t want to look for trouble.”
“Reporter?”
“Oh, I didn’t say. Some woman is trying to stick her nose into Ruben’s business, and by that I don’t mean his front.”
“Well, that makes it pretty easy then. If it’s a human, get out.”
“There’s something about this reporter that feels wrong. She’s too pushy.”
“Aren’t they always?”
“Only when they know something. And the fact that she does know something that she really shouldn’t makes me wonder if she has a better reason than just a story. Something tells me Connor’s not human anymore, not if he popped up on our radar.”
“You think it’s connected?”
I shook my head and gave up on the coffee. “Doubt it, but it’s just happening at the same time. Worth noticing. Pity the photo is still human. Without a smell it will make him hard to recognize.”
Joel chuckled. “It will be good for you to have a challenge for a change.”
I got up and put the half-empty cup of coffee on the table.
“I have to get into the office. I promised Ruben an hour after sundown and I’m already running late.”
I rolled out of the garage and started the bike. It came to life with a growl.
“I’ll keep you posted,” I said, my voice muffled through the helmet, and I turned and opened throttle.
“You’re late,” Ruben said when I walked into his office. I had my helmet under my arm. I hadn’t dropped it on Sonya’s desk which meant her mood wasn’t fouler than the average. Who said I didn’t have grace periods?
“I’m heading out again,” I said without answering to his accusation.
“You’ve got paperwork to look at.”
“Not tonight, I have other things on my plate.”
Ruben blinked at me, the amber slits of his eyes opening and closing over incredulity.
“Did you just tell me you were too busy to work for me on my time?”
“You sent Lawson to my apartment, Ruben. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”
I turned and left his office. His grumbling followed me all the way to the stairwell before it stopped.
I drove to Mulberry Street. The neighborhood was just what I expected it to be. Inconspicuous. The houses were average sized and the all looked almost the same, with nothing that made the one stand out from the other. They all had medium-sized gardens wrapped round them and I guessed if they weren’t vampires they would have their standard nine-to-five jobs and two point five children.
Number thirteen was a neat house with white wooden walls and a picket fence. It looked like something from a real estate ad. The windows had green shutters on either side and the garden was in full bloom.
A medley of scents hung in the air. I smelled Jasmine and Lilies, and to the side I spotted an arc covered in white Wisteria that led to the back garden. These were all night flowers. It was the first sign of a vampire house. Anything that could mask their natural smell because they understood the dangers that came with a sharp nose.
I closed my eyes and reached my feelers into the night, looking for people. The street around me had living beings in it, at least half the houses had their people home. But this one was definitely empty. I couldn’t feel a thing, no bodies in the house, no smell of blood in the air.
I walked around the back of the house, through the arc and onto a well-manicured lawn. Vampires didn’t often take care of their gardens like this. I inspected the windows, and there were no visible changes, no shutters installed. It could be that this house was just a human house with someone who loved gardening.
I pushed my knife underneath a window and slid it open. It creaked a bit but it didn’t stick. I slipped in and my lace-ups sank into a plush carpet.
Someone hissed loudly in my ear and I had my Smith & Wesson out in a flash, but at the other end a grey cat had its back arched and claws out. Something. Not Someone. I dared to breathe again. Yellow eyes glared at me.
“You’re lucky,” I said. I tried to calm my hammering heart. After the night before hissing wasn’t my favorite sound. If I’d blown the cat’s head off I would have had to worry about blood spatter on everything, and that would have been a real pain in the ass. The cat hissed at me again. This animal obviously didn’t like my vampire blood. Another sign that this house might not belong to vampires after all, not if Kitty Galore had a say. The conflicting signs annoyed me.
The house was tidy and it smelled of detergent. I breathed in deeply, trying to find a lead on a smell. It was almost impossible. I’d never come across a vampire that smelled like almost nothing. Humans doused themselves in perfumes and deodorant and it usually pinched my nose. I couldn’t tell what I was smelling, and the fact that I was being messed with irritated me even more.
In the bedroom I finally found a scent on the sheets. It was very faint, but it was there. No deodorant had been used to cover it up. I could understand why. With a smell this faint it would take someone a long time to track it, and the deodorant would give it away more than the natural scent at this point.
But it still smelled like vampire, however faint.
The only explanation I could find was that whatever slept here hadn’t been in for a while. It was better than admitting I couldn’t do everything perfectly.
I walked to the kitchen. The cat sat on the counter, watching. It made a low moaning sound at the back of its throat.
“It’s not too late for me to shoot you,” I said. It sat next to two bowls, both empty and dry.
“You’re master hasn’t been here in a while, has he?” I asked. The cat answered with a warning moan.
“Get off it,” I said and opened cabinet doors until the scent of cat food wafted out. I poured it into the bowl and filled the other up with water. The cat jumped up next to me, ignoring my presence, and dived into the food. By the looks of things it was hungry. I didn’t reach out to stroke it, it would only try to scratch me anyway. But it was kind of nice seeing something alive be grateful for something I’d done, and not dead or resenting.
Maybe I should get myself a pet.
The front door clicked and the sound travelled through my bones. I stepped back, melting into the darkness. I pushed myself up against a tall cabinet and took out my Smith & Wesson. With my other hand I felt for the stake at my hip. If this guy was a vampire, the one I was looking for, he was going to get it. Nothing like a surprise attack at home.
“Hey, Clyde,” a deep voice said. It was husky and silky, and it was like music to listen to. It sent shivers down my spine in a warm way, not the foreboding kind I usually felt. I wondered vaguely what had happened to Bonnie if this cat was Clyde.
“Sorry I disappeared for a while.” The cast answered with soft mewing sounds.
I couldn’t see the guy, but I heard him move towards the kitchen. Then the movement stopped.
“Who fed you?” he asked, alarm in his voice. He was close enough for me to smell, and I took a deep breath, letting the smell into my nostrils, my mind racing to place it. Definitely vampire. Warm blood, mutated cells. I was betting on fangs. With it was a strong pull, lacing all the signals. I didn’t usually feel this drawn to something. I took two seconds to puzzle over it, but then I pushed it away. There was one way to break a magnetic pull – eliminate the source.
I stepped out from behind the cabinet, pointing my S&W right at his face. He was shocked. I could feel it in the air. But strangely there was no fear. Usually it dominated. There wasn’t even a trace. In the dim lighting I could see his hands lift up, a surrender.
His hair was a pale blond in the light falling in through the window. He looked a lot like the photo in the dark, save for the ghostly pale skin and the elongated limbs.
“Mr. O’Neill,” I said. It wasn’t a question.
“What do you want?” he asked. He didn’t try to fight or run. But still, the smell of vampire became
stronger. It was almost as if he could hide it, and he was letting up now. Was that possible? I’d never met a vampire that could pretend to be human.
I heard him take a long, slow breath. He was smelling me, too. It was a predator thing. We weren’t two people, facing off. We were animals. But this wasn’t going to be a fight for dominance like they do it in the animal word. With a gun like mine we both knew who was boss. My finger curled around the trigger. If I couldn’t get in close enough for a stake, I was going to shoot.
“I know you,” he said. The words caught me off guard and I let go of the trigger. He’d been about one squeeze away from death. I stepped to the side, gun still pointing at his face, and got the light.
The yellow light flooded the room, brightening the white tiles to a glare. My eyes adjusted quickly, but he held up his arms over his eyes to shield it. Vampire eyes were sensitive even to man-made light. He grimaced and I spotted fangs touching his bottom lip.
“What do you know about me?” I demanded.
“Your smell,” he said. His voice was trembling a little, and it made me wonder if he really wasn’t scared, or if he’d managed to mask his fear as well. “Your scent, I’ve smelled it before.”
He slowly dropped his arms, and the vampire I’d saved that morning in the alley stood in front of me. His neck wounds were healed up and he didn’t have the dark circles under his eyes anymore, but it was definitely him. Something in my body lurked and I silently scolded my weakness. The attraction was ridiculous.
“Connor?” I asked, just to be sure. He nodded.
In a flash I had him up against the wall, with my forearm against his throat. He gasped and squirmed underneath my grip. I didn’t have my chain on me, I’d left it with the bike. Dammit. I hadn’t expected to catch one home. If he dematerialized now I would lose him.
“What are you?” he asked in a hoarse voice. Despite his strong ability to disguise himself his naivety showed through. He didn’t know a half-breed when he saw one. I’d moved in a blur like him, I was strong like him. But when I spoke I knew he noticed my blunt teeth. His eyes were on my mouth. It let my eyes trail down to his too. His fangs were sharp, resting lightly on his bottom lip. His lips were smooth and full but not too thick for a man. I forced my eyes back onto his.
“There’s a warrant out for you,” I said. Maybe only police spoke about warrants. Maybe bad guys called it something else. I didn’t know.
“Dead or alive?”
“Dead.”
I positioned the stake underneath his ribs. I looked up into his eyes. They were dark blue, deep like the ocean. I could fall into them if I wasn’t careful. I swallowed hard. We were frozen like that, with me half-choking him, and time stood still. I felt something around us, not the mist I’d expected but a shift in the atmosphere. It became so thick I was sure I could run my fingers through it. I frowned and slowly released him, letting him stand on his own two feet.
He didn’t run or fight or try to dematerialize. Instead he stood there, looking at me while I was gaping at him.
He lifted his hand slowly, and I flinched when he brought it closer, but I didn’t move away. His fingers touched the skin above my right eyebrow and he brushed my hair out of my face. A warm surge of electricity raced through my body. My blood hummed in my veins.
“You’re bruised,” he said, and I remembered what I must look like.
“It happens,” I said and regretted justifying it. Who was he?
“I woke up in a garage and your scent hung around me like fog,” Connor said. His fingers were still in my hair. I had to step away. Actually, I had to stake the vampire. I was aware of the tips of teeth, visible when he spoke. But the way he combed the tips of his fingers through my hair was nice. It made me feel warm. When last had I felt warm? And his eyes, I couldn’t look into his eyes and kill him. They hypnotized me and I wanted to keep staring into them.
“You were in the alley,” I said, and my voice was husky, not my own. “The sun was coming up.”
“You saved me then to kill me now?”
“It’s my job,” I said and looked away so his eyes wouldn’t make me betray myself even further.
“What’s stopping you?”
“You,” I whispered before I could stop myself.
Something changed in Connor’s eyes. An emotion flickered across his face, too fast for me to read. I became aware of the cat, purring on the counter like a tractor. This one liked vampires, apparently. It was reveling in Connor’s presence.
So it was just me it hated. Nice to know.
A sound outside ripped us out of the spell we were caught in. Connor cocked his head and listened. Even with my half-breed ears I was going to miss sounds a vampire could hear. I didn’t have all of it, just most of it.
“Something tells me I’m not the only person after you,” I said. He shook his head. If the security he set up around his information online was anything to go by, he had much more on his plate than I did.
“You’re not safe if you stay here, either. At the moment I’m just using this house as a distraction.”
“And you’re leaving your cat behind to fend for itself?”
He glanced at me. “For someone who kills people that’s a very judgmental statement.”
His words were sharp and I felt my insides cringe away like he’d physically done something to me. I shook my head. Who the hell was he? I didn’t care what he thought. I wouldn’t.
“So you want to tell me who’s out to kill you?”
“Are you planning on eliminating competition? Because that would be swell.” He moved around the kitchen, turning his head to catch sounds of the night. Twice he sniffed the air. Half the time he looked like he didn’t know what was going on, and the other half he looked like he’d been a vampire for years.
“You’ve been spending a lot of time with vampires,” I said, suddenly realizing what I was seeing. He nodded slowly.
“I had a couple work in my firm with me, until I found out they were dealing with illegal things behind my back. When I fired them things turned ugly, so I turned vampire.”
“You chose to turn?” It sounded appalling. I couldn’t imagine giving up something as perfect as humanity for something as raw and emotionless and being a vampire.
“It’s survival. You know better than any that a vampire is difficult to kill, where a human can just be taken out. I wasn’t my time to go.”
“Your fiancée is looking for you,” I said. The atmosphere changed again, it suddenly became ice cold, like someone had just switched off the heat.
“You know Jennifer?” he asked.
“She’s the one that hired me.”
“To kill me?” he looked confused.
“Not if you were human. Vampire puts you on my kill list.”
Connor looked like he thought about it for a moment. I could see cogs turning behind his eyes, but his face was carefully blank.
“You’re fun,” he said in a dull voice and I figured he’d finally come to his conclusions. They were the right ones, too, if he was being sarcastic with me. At the end of the day people weren’t nice to me when they understood what I did.
I opened my mouth to say something but he held up his hand, listening.
“I have to go, trouble’s coming,” he said, and then he disappeared. It was almost like he’d dissolved at record speed, and the feel of him lingered a short while after he’d dematerialized. I took a deep breath and tried to swallow, but my mouth was dry and my throat felt like sandpaper. The words I’d wanted to speak still rolled around on my tongue, and I stood alone in the kitchen, trying to decide which way was up in my life.
“Oh, you’re in trouble now,” I said to myself. This was the first mark that had gotten away from me, not because it had outsmarted me, but because I’d been rendered dumb. I felt like a fool. Anger bubbled up in my throat, and my blood heated up beneath my skin. Damn vampires. Damn Connor. Damn my stupid life. I hated all the killing, hated that I needed it to survive. And
the same time I hated myself for letting one get away.
Clyde hissed at me, mouth open and teeth bare. I didn’t have fangs, but I could hold my own in a cat fight. I hissed right back. The cat arched its back and squealed, and then disappeared down the passage.
I left the house, before the Conner’s troubles caught up to me, too.
Chapter 8
Sonya’s desk was empty when I reached the office half an hour before sunrise. The days rolling over from one to another when I finished work still affected me. It made me feel time was getting away from me. It was heading onto Thursday. I had been at this for almost a week and had nothing to show for it.
“Your secretary is missing,” I said to Ruben, walking into his office without an announcement.
“She’s wasn’t feeling well. I let her off early.”
“Big of you.”
I dropped three sets of keys and ID cards on Ruben’s desk. He frowned at my hand. I had blood across my fingers and under my nails, and it stained the rim of my sleeve as well, although it was harder to see against the black leather.
“Busy night?” he asked. I shrugged.
After I’d left Connor’s place I’d gone on a rampage. I’d killed all the orders I’d received from Ruben. I’d had to feel like I was still good for something, like I had some sort of worth. I’d stood face to face with one of my marks and I hadn’t been able to kill him.
Didn’t want to, I corrected myself. I could still do it. I wasn’t getting weak. I wouldn’t let myself come to that point.
“What are these?” Ruben asked, frowning at the three cards he’d arranged in front of him in a row.
“Kills,” I said. Obviously. “I don’t exactly take them to coffee.”
He looked up at me, his eyes almost-yellow, annoyed.
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