I can’t avoid this street forever,I replied.
Even though my heart juddered, blood rushing in my veins, I shoved my shoulders back and continued walking.
I couldn’t help Ji-ho face his fears if I ran away from mine.
I’d barely walked fifty yards when a prickle crept up my spine. It was the same feeling I’d had as a kid, walking home with my schoolbag biting into my shoulder, knowing someone was watching me before I saw them.
I didn’t let fear consume me as it had then. My pace didn’t change. My posture didn’t either. Predators noticed that sort of thing.
I should know – I was one of them now.
Paranoia, I told myself. Yet my gut refused to still.
Not paranoia, it insisted.Awareness.
I reached out to Loki, still fluttering high above me, trying to hide my jitters, but I could tell he felt them instantly because he dive-bombed straight towards me.Okay, Pigdog?
Perhaps just echoes of bad memories,I murmured.Perhaps more. Can you see anyone following me?
No, I wasn’t looking back.His little voice was full of chagrin.
Don’t worry. It’s probably nothing.
I look now.After a beat he confirmed,I see nothing. No one.
Never mind. Let’s keep going.
He flew on to the next lamppost.
I adjusted my grip on my father’s briefcase, fingers brushing the familiar weight of cold metal. Streetlights cast long shadows, the pools of yellow light broken by dark gaps between parked cars and hedges that had grown wild with neglect.
Too many places to hide.
I crossed the road for no reason other than that creep along my spine that I refused to ignore.
With my ears straining, I didn’t miss the faintest scuff of a footstep as something crossed behind me too.
My magic flooded me, ready to lash out with a burst of hard air that would knock even a monolith down. My heart pounded, knocking against my ribs, but I wasn’t afraid. Refused to be.
I didn’t turn. Turning too soon would be a mistake. I kept walking, counted my breaths, keeping them even and calm. I flicked my eyes to the reflections in the darkenedwindows I passed. Someone was behind me. Tall. Broad. A male, but only one assailant. I could handle one.
I assessed my new shadow in quick side glances at the windows, keeping my head straight forward. Just a lady calmly walking home.
He was walking casually, hands in pockets like he belonged there. Or because the pockets contained a weapon.
I raised an air shield around me, thick enough to stop bullets, and kept walking. Kept stealing glances.
My stalker was attractive. Obscenely so.
Almost certainly a vampyr, then.
‘Inspector Wise,’ a smooth voice finally called from behind me, cultured and amused. ‘You walk like someone who expects trouble.’
Damn, and I thought I’d been playing coy so well.
‘Funny,’ I said evenly. ‘I was thinking the same about you.’
I spun fast, moving closer to a streetlight. Vampyrs could faze in and out of the shadows, but if I were showered in light, it would rob him of that particular power.
